






■ 



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lis 
Hull 

I 






PRESIDENT GARFIELD 



AND EDUCATION 



i^iram College Memorial 



BY 



B. A. HINSDALE, A.M. 

PRESIDENT OF HIRAM COLLEGE 




FC v 



■ 
BOSTON 

JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY 

1882 






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Copyright, 1881, 
By JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 



All rights reserved. 



JFranfcltn ^rtss: 

RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY, 
BOSTON. 



PBEFAOE. 



THE propriety of a Hiram College Memorial to 
President Garfield will be admitted on all hands. 
It was in Hiram that he fitted for college, and that 
he made his - reputation as a teacher and school- 
administrator. Hiram was his home for twenty-six 
years. Much of that time, probably one-half of it, he 
spent in other places and duties, — college, the army, 
and Congress ; but Hiram was the place to which he 
looked for residence and rest. To those who have 
become acquainted with him, his name or fame, the 
last four years, Mentor means more than Hiram ; but 
to all of his earlier friends Hiram means as much more 
than Mentor, as his residence in the one place was 
longer than his residence in the other. 

Nor can there be two opinions as to the fitness of 
such a memorial as is here attempted. General Gar- 
field was a scholar and an educator. His earliest 
fame was won in study and in teaching. He was 
always the friend and advocate of education. It was 
in Hiram school that his happiest days were spent, 

6 



6 PKEFACE. 

and that he performed the work which in late years 
he looked back upon with most satisfaction. Hence, 
such of his utterances concerning education and edu- 
cators as have been preserved, attended by suitable 
memorials of his Hiram life, could not fail deeply 
to interest educators and cultivated men generally, 
especially such as belong to the Hiram fellowship. 
That this volume will measurably draw out this in- 
terest, is the hope of its compiler and of others whom 
he has consulted in its preparation. 

Some remarks upon the number and quality of 
the speeches and addresses included, will be found in 
another place ; but it is proper to say here, that the 
personal sketch is by no means exhaustive. An in- 
teresting and inspiring volume could be prepared on 
his Hiram life. Here the aim is to make a Garfield 
book in the sense of his being its author, and not 
simply its subject. At the same time, the personal 
sketch is a comprehensive survey, embracing all salient 
points of his Hiram life and character, filled in with 
sufficient memorabilia to answer the purpose of illus- 
tration. AVhat is more, the memorial speeches made 
at Cleveland supplement the sketch, and show the 
impressions made by Teacher Garfield upon their 
authors, who are simply the representatives and mouth- 
pieces of thousands. 

This book has been prepared, and is now published, 



PREFACE. I 

in the confident belief that no more appropriate memo- 
rial to the lamented dead could go forth from Presi- 
dent Garfield's old home. It is also believed that none 
could go forth, which, were he living, would give him 
so much pleasure. 

It is proper to add, that this memorial has Mrs. 
Garfield's cordial approval. The pictures of the 
President and herself she has chosen. Writing at 
Mentor, Oct. 28, 1881, she says, "I quite approve of 
your plan in regard to the memorial volume. It would 
be most appropriate that the speeches to which you refer 
should appear in such a volume." 

B. A. HINSDALE. 
Hiram College, Hiram, O., 
Nov. 19, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. PAGE 

MEMORIALS OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD IN HIRAM. 

I. General Sketch 15 

I. Hiram and Hiram School 15 

H. Garfield the Hiram Student 24 

m. The Williams College Interregnum ... 39 

IV. Garfield President of Hiram .... 46 

V. Garfield's Outside Work ..... 73 

VI. Garfield's Later Hiram Life 87 

II. Addresses at Hiram College Memorial Service 114 

I. B. A. Hinsdale 114 

H. J. H. Rhodes 124 

HI. C. B. Lockwood 133 

IV. C. D. Wilbur 138 

V. J. W. Robeins 145 

VI. A. H. Pettibone 147 

VII. H. C. White 150 

VHI. H. N. Eldridge 157 

PART II. 

PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 
ON EDUCATION AND EDUCATORS. 

Introduction to Speeches 161 

I. The State and Education 162 

1. The National Bureau of Education . . . 162 

2. The Army Post Schools 169 

3. The " Hoar Bill " 173 

4. Education and the South 173 

H. The State and Science 174 

UT. Studies and Methods 176 

IV. Tributes to Educators 178 

9 



10 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I. The National, Bureau of Education: Speech in 

the House of Representatives, June 8, 1866 . . 181 
II. National Aid to Education: Speech in the House 

of Representatives, Feb. 6, 1872 215 

III. Suffrage and Schools: Extract from " The Future 

of the Republic: its Dangers and Hopes." An Ad- 
dress delivered before the Literary Societies of West- 
ern Reserve College, Hudson, 0., July 2, 1873 . . 231 

IV. Popular Education: Extracts from the Letter of 

Acceptance, and the Inaugural Address, July 12, 
1880, and March 4, 1881 245 

V. The Gist of the " Southern Question: " Reply 
made at Mentor, to a Delegation of Colored Citizens 
from South Carolina and other Southern States, 

Jan. 14, 1881 251 

VI. Relation of the National Government to Sci- 
ence: Speech in the House of Representatives, Feb. 
11, 1879 257 

VII. College Education: An Address before the Literary 
Societies of the Eclectic Institute, Hiram, 0., June 
14, 1867 275 

VIII. Elements of Success: Address before the Students 
of the Spencerian Business College, Washington, 
D.C, June 29, 1869 315 

IX. Some Tendencies of American Education: Speech 
before the Department of Superintendence of the 
National Education Association, Washington, D.C, 
Feb. 5, 1879 335 

X. S. F. B. Morse: An Address at the Morse Memorial 
Meeting, held in the Hall of the House of Represent- 
atives, April 16, 1872 343 

XI. Joseph Henry: Address at the Memorial Meeting, 
held in the Hall of the House of Representatives, 

Tuesday evening, Jan. 16, 1879 353 

XII. Life and Character of Almeda A. Booth: An 
Address delivered at Hiram College, 0., June 22, 
1876 365 

Appendix 427 



LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS. 



Page 
Portrait of President Garfield . . . Frontispiece 
Facsimile Letter of President Garfield . . . .15 

View of Hiram College 24 

Portrait of Miss Booth 28 

Facsimile Letter of Miss Booth 30 

Portrait of Mrs. Garfield 86 

Facsimile Letter of Mrs. Garfield .... 90 



Paet I. 

JHemortate of ^resilient ffiarficltr in l^iranu 

STUDENT, TEACHER, AND CITIZEN. 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, /j 

WASHINGTON 



J/ /^Zi^^L) #i*-^&u^ Cxr^L/*-*^ 




PKESIDENT GAEFIELD AND 
EDUCATION. 



I. 

GENERAL SKETCH. 

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD first came to 
Hiram in August, 1851. An account of what 
Hiram then was, and of what he was, will be a 
fitting introduction to his Hiram life. 

I. — HIRAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL. 

In 1850 Hiram was a township of Western 
Reserve farmers ; surface twenty-five square miles, 
population eleven hundred and six. The "Cen- 
tre " was a cross-roads, with a post-office, one or 
two shops, two white churches, and three or four 
dwelling-houses. It was remote from any main 
thoroughfare or centre of population. No stage- 
coach wheels rolled within five miles of the 
place. Probably twenty farmhouses lay within 

15 



16 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

a radius of a mile. And this was all. Here, 
on the eastern slope of the great "divide," and 
a mile from its crest, the Disciples of Christ, in 
the summer of 1850, planted the Western Reserve 
Eclectic Institute, the child of much consultation, 
prayer, and hope. The reasons that led to this 
location may properly be set down in this place. 

In that day the Disciples of the Western Re- 
serve were mostly rural people, sharing the old- 
fashioned prejudices against towns and cities. 
Thought, in Northern Ohio, was narrowly pro- 
vincial in 1850. There were only two or three 
railroads in the State. No one dreamed of our 
present railroad system, or foresaw the centraliza- 
tion of wealth and population that the steam- 
locomotive has wrought. Travelling was done in 
wheeled vehicles or on horseback. People owned 
their own conveyances and horses. So the fath- 
ers asked, " Why can they not turn their horses' 
heads towards Hiram as well as towards any 
other place?" Hiram, then, offered the desired 
seclusion. Hiram had a vigorous church, that 
would furnish the desired religious environment. 
Hiram, too, offered a contingent subscription of 
four thousand dollars, — no mean inducement to 
the trustees of a school that was not expected, 



HIRAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL. 17 

at its founding, to cost more than twice or thrice 
that sum. The aims of the school were both 
general and special. More narrowly they were 
these : — 

1. To provide a sound scientific and literary 
education. 

2. To temper and sweeten such education with 
moral and scriptural knowledge. 

3. To educate young men for the ministry. 
One peculiar tenet of the religious movement 

in which it originated was impressed upon the 
Eclectic Institute at its organization. The Dis- 
ciples believed that the Bible had been in a degree 
obscured by theological speculations and ecclesi- 
astical systems. Hence their religious movement 
was a revolt from the theology of the schools, and 
an overture to men to come face to face with the 
Scriptures. They believed, also, that to the Holy 
Writings belonged a larger place in general edu- 
cation than had yet been accorded to them. Ac- 
cordingly, in all their educational institutions 
they have emphasized the Bible and its related 
branches of knowledge. This may be called the 
distinctive feature of their schools. The charter 
of the Eclectic Institute, therefore, declared the 
purpose of the institution to be "the instruction 



18 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

of youth of both sexes in the various branches of 
literature and science, especially of moral science 
as based on the facts and precepts of the Holy 
Scriptures." 

It took time for Hiram to become what it is 
to-day, — a bright Ohio village ; white houses, 
green blinds, maples and elms, a handsome college 
building, and a beautiful campus. Soon the new 
school drew to itself three hundred scholars ; and, 
although that number was not long maintained, 
Hiram has furnished tuition for more than five 
thousand individual pupils. At the re-union of 
1880 General Garfield said, " To my mind, the his- 
tory of Hiram College, and the institution on which 
it was built, divides itself into two chapters. The 
first, both in time and perhaps in importance, should 
be headed, i What other people did for it ; ' and the 
second, ' What Hiram did for itself.' ' On that 
occasion he condensed much Hiram history — as 
well as much of his own history — into this short 
speech : — 

" Ladies and Gentlemen, — I said there were two 
chapters in the history of this Institution. You have heard 
one relative to the founders. 1 They were pioneers in this 
Western Reserve. They were all men of energy, great force 

1 Referring to an historical address just delivered. 



HIEAM AND HIEAM SCHOOL. 19 

of character, and nearly all of them men of small means ; 
but they planted this institution. In 1850 the campus was 
a cornfield with a solid, plain brick building in the centre 
of it ; and almost all the rest has been dono by the insti- 
tution itself. This is the second chapter. It was without 
a dollar of endowment, without a powerful friend any- 
where, but with a corps of teachers who were told to go 
on the ground, and see what they could make out of it, 
and to take their pay out of the tuitions that should be 
received ; who invited students of their own spirit to come 
here, and find out by trial what they could make out of 
it ; and the response has been their chapter of work, and 
the chief part of the response I see in the faces gathered 
before me to-day. It was a simple question of sinking or 
swimming. I know that we are all inclined to be a little 
clannish ; perhaps we have a right to be : but I do not 
know of any place, I do not know of any institution, that 
has accomplished more, with so little means, than this 
school on Hiram Hill. 

" I know of no place where the doctrine of self-help has 
had a fuller development, by necessity as well as by favor, 
than here on this hill. The doctrine of the survival of 
the fittest found its place amongst these men and women 
gathered here. As I said about them a great many years 
ago, the theory of Hiram was to throw its young men and 
women overboard, and let them try it for themselves ; and 
all that were fit to get ashore got there, and I think we 
had few cases of drowning. Now, when I look over these 
faces, and mark the several geological ages so well repre- 
sented by Mr. At water in his address, I note one curious 



20 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

fact where the geological analogy does not hold : I find no 
fossils, — no fossils at all. Some are dead, and glorious in 
our memories ; but those who are alive are alive, I think 
all. The teachers and the students of this school built it 
up in every sense, — made the cornfield into that handsome 
campus. These evergreens you see across the road, they 
planted. I well remember the day that they turned out 
and went into the woods to find beautiful maples, and 
brought them in; when they purchased these evergreens; 
when each young man for himself, and perhaps a second 
for some young lady that he loved, planted one or two 
trees on the campus, and named them after himself. There 
are many here with moist eyes to-day who can point out 
the tree that Bowler planted. Bowler was shot through j 
the heart at Cedar Mountain. Many of you who point out 
trees, big trees now, called after you many years ago. I 
believe, outside of the physical features of the place, that 
there was a stronger pressure of work to the square inch in 
the boilers that ran this establishment, than any other I 
know of. Young men and women, rough, crude, untutored 
farmer-boys and farmer-girls, came here to try themselves, j 
and find what manner of people they were. They came 1 
here to go on a voyage of discovery to discover themselves. 
In many cases I hope the discovery was fortunate in all 
that was worthy of trying; and the friendships that Mere 
formed out of that struggle have followed this group of peo- 
ple longer and farther than almost any I have ever known 
in my life. They are scattered all over the United States, 
in every field of activity ; and if I should try to name them 
the sun would go down before I had finished." 



HIRAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL. 21 

Truth, if not modesty, would have allowed him 
to add with Father iEneas, " All of which I saw, 
and a great part of which I was." 

When Garfield came to Hiram, every thing was 
new and crude. As he says in his address on 
" The Life and Character of Almeda A. Booth," 
" The Eclectic was compelled to create its own 
scholarship and culture. Very few of its early 
students had gone beyond the ordinary studies 
of the district school; and a large majority of 
them needed thorough discipline in the common 
English branches." Hiram gave the Institute a 
seat ; the trustees gave a building and the first 
teachers ; the regions farther and nearer, schol- 
ars; and then the spiritual Hiram developed it- 
self. Society, traditions, and the peculiar genius 
of the place were evolved from the teachers and 
pupils, limited by the local and general environ- 
ment. 

The opening of this new school was coincident 
with three things important in this history : — 

1. Coincident with a general educational awak- 
ening in the State of Ohio. In an important 
sense, the present school-system of the State dates 
from the year 1853. 1 Population had increased 

i The date of the " Rioe School Law." 



22 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

in the State marvellously ; the homes of the peo- 
ple were full of youth ; and wealth had so grown, 
that men, in great part freed from the burden of 
sweeping away the forests, were enabled to pay 
greatly increased attention to the education of 
their children. 

2. Coincident with an important epoch in the 
history of the Disciples of the Reserve. They 
were numerous and active : they now had a school 
of their own, in which they took the pride and 
interest that parents take in a first child. 

3. Coincident with the young manhood of 
James A. Garfield. His family belonged to the 
Disciples' Church : so did the families of many 
neighbors. He himself had become a member a 
year and a half before. No better school was 
within his reach in 1851 ; but it must be said, 
that, for the most part, religious influences brought 
him to this place. Here, too, may be dropped a 
thought that cannot be fully developed. 

No other church in the land could have given 
him the opportunity that the Disciples offered. 
This is true in a double sense. While there was 
an absence of license on the one hand, there was 
large freedom on the other. This gave him an 
opportunity to exercise his gifts, intellectual and 



HIRAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL. 23 

religious, such as an older and more conservative 
body could not have given, which he improved 
much to the profit of his brethren and to his own 
advantage. But more, the Disciple habit of mind, 
especially the denominational method of handling 
the Scriptures, — which may be briefly defined as 
a brushing-aside of the Church creeds, as well as 
much of the traditionary theology, and a direct 
face-to-face study of the Bible, — was an important 
element in his history. Stress may also be laid 
upon the accepted canons of interpretation, both 
few and simple, as well as " dividing the word of 
truth " by the application of the principle of rela- 
tivity ; as, for instance, taking into account the 
period of divine revelation immediately in hand, 
whether the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, or the Chris- 
tian. No one who is thoroughly familiar with 
President Garfield's history can doubt that this 
Disciple habit and method had a most important 
influence upon his mind, his whole life and char- 
acter. At the same time, he was the farthest 
removed from a sectarian or denominationalist. 
His religious thought was ever broad, his spirit 
ever catholic. 



24 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
II. — GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 

To this young school, young Garfield came the 
third term of its existence. In three months more 
he would be twenty years of age. An obvious and 
interesting analogy between the school and the 
pupil could be readily traced out. Both were in 
the formative period; both were full of strength 
and enthusiasm; but both needed growth and 
ripeness. He was strong-framed, deep-chested, six 
feet high, with a blue eye, and a massive head sur- 
mounted by a shock of tow-colored hair. Physi- 
cally he was the Garfield of twenty years later, 
only he had the pulpy adolescence of twenty. 
Time had not yet rounded out his figure, browned 
and thinned his hair, and put into his face the lines 
of thought. The school was growing, and he was 
growing. His intellectual and moral qualities had 
already declared themselves. Having lost his fa- 
ther in his infancy, and having been thrown upon 
his own resources at an early age, in the midst of 
the pioneers of Ohio, his sense of responsibility, 
his judgment, and his self-helpfulness were devel- 
oped much beyond the average. He was full of 
animal spirits and young joviality ; but he had had 
his ear upon the human heart, and had heard its re- 




HIRAM COLLEGE. 



GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 25 

verberatory murmur in the minor key. Two years 
or more before, lie had finished the studies of the 
Orange district school. At Chester, O., where he 
had attended Geauga Seminary four terms in 1849 
and 1850, he had studied natural philosophy, 
algebra, and botany, and begun Lathi and Greek. 
He had taught district-school two terms, and 
received a full measure of the benefit which comes 
from that valuable discipline. He had already 
put his early longings for the lake and the sea 
behind him, and had determined to have the best 
education that he could obtain. His coming to 
Hiram was the next step towards carrying out 
this resolution. His address on Miss. Booth con- 
tains some interesting description and autobiog- 
raphy. This extract lets in a strong side-light 
upon his mind in 1851 : — 

"A few days after the beginning of the term, I saw a 
class of three reciting in mathematics, — geometry, I think. 
They sat on one of the red benches, in the centre aisle of 
the lower chapel. I had never seen a geometry ; and, regard- 
ing both teacher and class with a feeling of reverential awe 
for the intellectual heights to which they had climbed, I 
studied their faces so closely that I seem to see them now as 
distinctly as I saw them then." 

All scholars who had few books and other edu- 



26 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

cational advantages in youth can take in this 
picture at once, — teacher, class, and the honest, 
open-eyed youth of twenty years, full of wonder, 
appreciation, and reverence. 

Having looked at Garfield's new surroundings, 
and equipped him, let us now see him at his 
work. 

First, he came to Hiram poor in every thing 
but faculties and character. He was wholly de- 
pendent upon his own resources. He sought and 
obtained the position of janitor, — a position re- 
served in those days for poor students who wanted 
a chance to help themselves. Two terms he made 
fires, swept the floors, and rang the bell. Scores 
of men and women can now be found who well 
remember seeing the future President of the 
United States at the end of the Hiram bell-rope. 
One who has added her rill to this stream of 
reminiscence, and whose memory goes back to 
the bell-ringing days, says, " His large head and 
massive frame had a suggestion of the overgrown ; 
but he escaped awkwardness by the thought and 
purpose that controlled his actions. His clothes 
had a poor-student look. At the close of the 
morning lecture, before the students left the room, 
he would leave the chapel, and ring the bell. His 



GARFIELD THE HER AM STUDENT. 27 

tread was firm and free, and the same unconscious 
dignity followed him then that attended him when 
he ascended the eastern portico of the Capitol to 
deliver his Inaugural Address. He was modest 
and self-possessed, without vanity or self-con- 
sciousness, and then and always absolutely free 
from any affectation whatever." A house is still 
pointed out in Hiram, the clapboards of which he 
planed in one of his vacations. But bell-ropes 
and jack-planes do not make men great : if they 
did, the road to greatness would be easy enough. 
So we pass on to things more important. 

On his arrival at Hiram in August, 1851, Mr. 
Garfield took up his studies where he had dropped 
them at Chester. After one term's work as stu- 
dent and janitor, he retired for a term to teach 
his last district-school. In the spring of 1852 he 
returned, and continued in Hiram until he went to 
Williamstown in 1854. Principal Hayden and 
teachers Dunshee, Munnell, and Hull were his 
instructors. To Dunshee he probably recited more 
than to all the rest put together. Garfield always 
appreciated and respected his Hiram teachers ; but 
it is perfectly just to them to say that Miss Booth, 
who never was a teacher of his, but rather a fellow- 
student, did much more than they did to mould his 



28 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

character and give direction to his life. That he 
so felt, any one can see by reading between the 
lines his noble tribute to her character and work. 
Not only so, but he says in words, — 

"On my own behalf, I take this occasion to say, that for 
her generous and powerful aid, so often and so efficiently 
rendered, for her quick and never-failing sympathy, and for 
her intelligent, unselfish, and unswerving friendship, I owe 
her a debt of gratitude and affection, for the payment o 
which the longest term of life would have been too short." 

But it may be said, " This was in the present 
of the Hiram fellowship." Let it be said, then, 
that before the Williams College fellowship h( 
bore a similar testimony. At the Williams ban- 
quet, held in Cleveland, Jan. 10, 1881, after recog- 
nizing his obligation to the common schools of 
Ohio and to Williams College, he said, — 

" I am glad to say, reverently, in the presence of the manj 
ladies here to-night, that I owe to a woman who has lon^ 
since been asleep, perhaps a higher debt intellectually thai 
I owe to any one else. After that comes my debt to Wil- 
liams College." 

He called no name, but it was Almeda Booth. 
Probably the best account of Garfield's Hirai 




, 



, <£.<&, /3<~ *£ , 



GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 29 

studies that can be given without access to his 
diary is his account of Miss Booth's studies. Let 
the reader substitute his name for hers, in the 
following paragraphs : — 

" I remember that she and I were members of the class 
that began Xenophon's ' Anabasis,' in the fall term of 1852. 
Near the close of that term I also began to teach in the 
Eclectic, and thereafter, like her, could keep up my studies 
only outside of my own class hours. In mathematics and 
the physical sciences, I was far behind her ; but we were 
nearly at the same place in Greek and Lathi, each having 
studied them about three terms. She had made her home at 
President Hayden's, almost from the first ; and I became a 
member of his family at the beginning of the winter term of 
1852-53. Thereafter, for nearly two years, she and I studied 
together, and recited in the same classes (frequently with- 
out other associates), till we had nearly completed the classi- 
cal course. 

" From a diary which I then kept, and in which my own 
studies are recorded, I am able to state, quite accurately, 
what she accomplished in the classics, from term to term, in 
the two following years. During the winter and spring terms 
of 1853, she read Xenophon's ' Memorabilia ' entire, reciting to 
Professor Dunshee. In the summer vacation of 1853, twelve 
of the more advanced students engaged Professor Dunshee 
as a tutor for one month. John Harnit, H. W. Everest, 
Philip Burns, C. C. Foote, Miss Booth, and I were of the 
number. A literary society was formed, in which all took 
part. During those four weeks, besides taking an active 



30 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

part in the literary exercises of the society, Miss Booth read 
thoroughly, and for the first time, the Pastorals of Virgil, — 
that is, the 'Georgics' and ' Bucolics ' entire, and the first six 
books of Homer's ' Iliad,' accompanied by a thorough drill in 
the Latin or Greek grammar at each recitation. I am sure 
that none of those who recited with her would say she was 
behind the foremost in the thoroughness of her work or the 
elegance of her translations. 

"During the fall term of 1853, she read one hundred pages 
of Herodotus, and about the same amount of Livy. During 
that term also, Professors Dunshee and Hull, Miss Booth 
and I, met at her room two evenings of each week, to make 
a joint translation of the book of Romans. Professor Dun- 
shee contributed his studies of the German commentators, 
De Wette and Tholuck ; and each of the translators made 
some special study for each meeting. How nearly we com- 
pleted the translation, I do not remember ; but I do remem- 
ber that the contributions and criticisms of Miss Booth were 
remarkable for suggestiveness and sound judgment. Our 
work was more thorough than rapid ; for I find this entry in 
my diary for Dec. 15, 1853 : ' Translation Society sat three 
hours at Miss Booth's room, and agreed upon the translation 
of nine verses.' 

" During the winter term of 1853-54, she continued to 
read Livy, and also read the whole of Demosthenes ' On the 
Crown.' The members of the class in Demosthenes were 
Miss Booth, A. Hull, C. C. Foote, and myself. 

" During the spring term of 1854, she read the ' Germa- 
nia ' and ' Agricola ' of Tacitus, and a portion of Hesiod." 



^JL £&^ ^— ^^/ y^-*-^ 




GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 31 

Garfield was in Hiram only eight terms, aver- 
aging thirteen weeks in length, before he went 
to college. Six of these terms, as will soon be 
more fully stated, he taught in the Institute sev- 
eral hours each day. In those eight terms he 
carried his studies to the junior year of the 
Williams College course. This included nearly 
all the Greek and Latin included in the terms 
of admission, as well as the studies of the 
Freshman and Sophomore years. Those who are 
curious to see the amount of study that this 
included are referred to the terms of admission 
to Williams in 1854-55, and the full course of 
instruction, which will be found in the catalogue. 
The simple facts tell their own story, and no 
commentary is needed. 

President H. W. Everest, of Butler University, 
Indiana, who was a student with Garfield in 
Chester, as well as a student and teacher with 
him in Hiram, thus speaks in a late private com- 
munication : — 

"I met him first at Chester. Rooming in the same 
building, and working for a while at the same carpenter's 
bench, we soon became intimate. He was a noticeable stu- 
dent, both on the play-ground and in the class-room. "We 
recited Robinson's algebra together, and belonged to a liter- 



32 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ary society of our own getting-up, called the ' Mystic Ten.* 
At Hiram I was not classed with him, yet knew much of 
him as a student, but more of him as a teacher. My esti- 
mate is briefly as follows; and for many of the items I 
remember distinct illustrations : — 

"1. His intellections were clear, vigorous, and easy in 
all directions, but especially so in the languages. 

" 2. He did not study merely to recite well, but to know, 
and for the pleasure of learning and knowing. 

" 3. It was his main object to master the thought, but the 
language was retained with the thought. 

"4. As study was the easy play of his mind, so to recount 
and to review his lessons and reading was a frequent pleas- 
ure. 

" 5. He was a master at condensed classifications, so that 
his memory easily held and reproduced what he had learned. 

"6. He had a wide-awake curiosity, which seemed never 
to be satiated. A new thing, however unimportant, always 
attracted his attention. 

" 7. He had a great desire and settled purpose to conquer, 
to master the lesson, to prove superior to every difficulty, 
to excel all competitors, to conquer and surpass himself. 

"8. With this desire to conquer, there was found the 
most generous and exultant admiration at the success of 
another. 

"9. Over all his study he shed the glory of a happy 
disposition, — of youth, hope, and manly courage." 

All of these points are well taken, but several 
of them deserve especial emphasis. He studied 



GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 33 

to know, and for the pleasure of learning and 
knowing. With this may be connected President 
Everest's seventh point, Garfield's settled purpose 
to conquer, to prove superior to every difficulty. 
His love of victory, over men or things, was the 
strongest ; but it was a love born of the noblest 
elements. He took no pleasure in a merely per- 
sonal triumph ; but a triumph that was a test of 
honorable superiority, he keenly enjoyed. Here, 
too, may be mentioned his full appreciation and 
generous recognition of all men, even though com- 
petitors or opponents. His determination to mas- 
ter whatever he undertook, especially to subdue 
his own nature, is well illustrated by an anecdote. 
Sitting on a log in the edge of the woods, back 
of the college building in Hiram, he once said to 
the companion of his walk, — 

" I have made a painful discovery. I have found that my 
mind needs interest in a subject to incite it to continuous 
action. The other day I tried to read through a long bill in 
which I had no interest : it was merely my duty to read it. 
My attention wandered, thus revealing a defect in my train- 
ing. If I cannot otherwise overcome this defect," he said, 
" I will give up my work, renounce public life, go to Germany, 
and take a full course in one of the universities. I must be 
full master of my powers at any cost." 



34 PKESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

At this time he had been in Congress several 
years. 

His mastery of condensed classification not 
only aided retention and reproduction, and thus 
greatly facilitated the process of thorough acqui- 
sition, but was of incalculable value to him as 
a teacher and a public speaker. All members of 
his classes who appreciated him, and even those 
students who simply heard his lectures, cannot 
fail to remember the advantage that they received 
from his blackboard classifications. They were a 
capital feature of all his teaching. Probably, too, 
some will remember the effective use that he made 
of the blackboard at Chagrin Falls (in the debate 
soon to be mentioned), in showing up Mr. Den- 
ton's "law of the planetary distances." Besides, 
in his oratory classification is an element equally 
important with strength of statement and aptness 
of illustration. His curiosity could never be 
satisfied. No matter what he touched, he must 
understand it. When he went as commissioner to 
the Flat-Heads, he studied up all the Flat-Head 
literature that he could find. He got hold of 
Lewis and Clarke's report of their expedition to 
Oregon : he carried it with him, and read it with 
the utmost avidity as he rolled over the hills 



GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 35 

of Montana in the stage-coach. No doubt, too, 
Captain Douglass Ottinger, the other officers, and 
the crew of the cutter " Commodore Perry," will 
remember the eager interest that he took in 
every thing pertaining to their ship and service, 
when he made a trip with them down Lake Erie 
in 1878, to inspect the Life-Saving Service. The 
glow of his happy social disposition, his joyous 
nature, his faith, hope, and courage, and even his 
tendency to optimism, was an indispensable condi- 
tion of his success as a student, as a teacher, and 
as a public man. 

Finally, President Everest says Garfield did not 
study merely to recite well, but to know, and for 
the pleasure of learning and knowing. But Gar- 
field did study to recite well, all the same. He 
was never indifferent to a recitation, or to any 
other appearance of his before a class or an audi- 
ence. Consciousness that he had made a good 
recitation never failed to give him much satisfac- 
tion. Still, he perfectly appreciated that knowl- 
edge and training are the ends of study: nay, 
he recognized no antagonism between good recit- 
ing, in the proper sense, and thorough knowledge. 
The one is an end in itself, and is the necessary 
condition of the other. He once said, " If at any 



36 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

time I began to flag in my effort to master a sub- 
ject, as working out a problem, I was stimulated 
to further effort by the thought, 'Some other 
fellow in the class will probably master it.' " In 
summing up the forces that acted in President 
Garfield's life, what he thought "the other fellow" 
was likely to do must never be overlooked. He 
was always generous in his emulations, but his 
eye never wandered from the " other fellow." At 
the same time, full recognition of noble achieve- 
ment for its own sake, and faithfulness to the 
heavenly vision as revealed in his own heart, ran 
parallel with the spirit of emulation. 

Although Mr. Garfield had made but slight 
progress in mathematics and classics when he 
came to Hiram, before the end of the first year 
he ranked well up with the best scholars. His 
masterful mind immediately asserted itself. All 
soon acknowledged that he was the peer of any : 
many held him superior to all his compeers. 
His mind was now reaching out in all directions. 
He was a vast elemental force, and nothing was 
so essential to him as room and opportunity. 
Hiram was now forming her future teachers, as 
well as creating her own culture. Naturally, 
therefore, he was given a place in the corps of 



GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 37 

teachers. So in the catalogue of 1853-54 his name 
appears twice, — "James A. Garfield, Cuyahoga 
County," pupil ; and " J. A. Garfield, Teacher 
in the English Department, and of the Ancient 
Languages." His early engagement as a teacher 
may point to a certain rawness in the school. 
However that may be, the pupils lost nothing, but 
gained much. That the engagement was of great 
value to him, all will admit who hold with the 
ancients, and with the founders of the European 
universities, that teaching is essential to the prog- 
ress and perfection of the scholar. In this respect 
Hiram gave him an advantage that an older 
school, with a higher standard and more conven- 
tionality, could not have given. The two years 
following he taught arithmetic, grammar, alge- 
bra, penmanship, geometry, and classes in classics. 
He handled large classes in the English studies 
with conspicuous power. He took captive the 
members of his classes. He won the students as 
a body. His pupils and fellow-students had a 
great deal to say about him, as well as much to 
write in their letters ; and the result was, that he 
made a deep impression, both directly and indi- 
rectly, upon the patrons of the school generally. 
The managers of the Institute saw that his further 



38 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

services would be most desirable when he had 
finished his own studies. He and Miss Booth left 
for college at the same time. As they took their 
leave, — he to return in two years, and she in one, 
— the Board adopted this resolution : — 

"In view of the faithfulness and service to the institu- 
tion of James A. Garfield and Almeda A. Booth, we recom- 
mend to appropriate to each fifty dollars in addition to their 
salaries." 

In that day of small things, fifty dollars was a 
large sum to the Hiram Board, and to these faith- 
ful teachers as well. 

It was in the winter of 1853-54 that Garfield 
preached his first sermon in Hiram, and made his 
first chapel lecture. One who was so fortunate as 
to hear both, says the sermon was a parallel 
between the history of Napoleon Bonaparte and 
Jesus Christ. The lecture was upon the origin of 
the English language, a topic then beginning to 
attract much attention in academical and col- 
legiate schools. He came to the stand with a 
book in his hand, afterwards discovered to be 
Fowler's English Grammar. From Part II. of 
this work, "Historical Elements of the English 
Language," he mainly drew his materials. There 



GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 39 

will be found these lines, that he quoted with 
much effect : — 

" Then sad relief, from that bleak coast that hears 
The German Ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong, 
And yellow-haired, the blue-eyed Saxon came." 

The lecture was full of instruction, and opened 
up to one mind at least that inviting field, the 
origin, history, and nature of our noble mother- 
tongue. 

But his studies and teaching did not exhaust 
his activities. He entered into the literary work 
of the school with great interest and enthusiasm. 
He was a leading spirit, first in the Eclectic Soci- 
ety, and later in the Philomathean. He turned 
his hand with equal readiness and ability to the 
essay, the oration, and the debate. No student's 
voice was more potent than his in shaping the 
general polity and tone of the school. 

ILL — THE WILLIAMS COLLEGE INTERREGNUM. 

By the close of the spring term, 1854, Mr. Gar- 
field was ready for college, and was looking about 
for an alma mater. He thought of Bethany, then 
presided over by Alexander Campbell, whom he 
greatly reverenced. He decided against Bethany 



40 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

on three grounds, that he thus stated at the time : 
" The course of study is not so extensive or thor- 
ough as in Eastern colleges." "Bethany leans 
too heavily towards slavery." " I am the son of 
Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but 
little acquaintance with people of other views; 
and, having lived always in the West, I think it 
will make me more liberal, both in my religious 
and general views and sentiments, to go into a new 
circle, where I shall be under new influence." So 
he wrote to Brown, Yale, and Williams, stating 
what he had done, and asking how long it would 
take him to finish their courses. 

Says Garfield, in the letter just quoted from, — 

"Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can 
graduate in two years. They are all brief business notes ; 
but President Hopkins concludes with this sentence : ' If you 
come here, we shall be glad to do what we can for you.' 
Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence — which 
seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand — has 
settled the question for me. I shall start for Williams next 
week." 

Upon what small pivots do great matters turn ! 
In due time this sentence of Dr. Hopkins's will 
appear in somebody's book upon turning-points 



GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 41 

in life. So our Hiram student went away to 
Williamstown, feeling, perhaps, with Milton, — 

"How soon hath time, the subtle thief of youth, 
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year ! " 

But to Williamstown we cannot follow him. 
Our story begins again at his return to Hiram in 
1856. However, the narrative may be interrupted 
to set down in this place some facts and reflec- 
tions that force themselves upon the mind. 

Garfield's three years in Hiram had been suc- 
cessful to an extraordinary degree. They had 
been years of wonderful growth to him. He had 
gotten out of the school all that he could get : he 
left much of himself behind. He had fitted him- 
self for the junior class of an Eastern college. 
Indeed, he felt confident of his ability to finish 
the course in one year ; but, feeling the need of 
longer and more thorough training, he wisely de- 
termined to take two years. He had demon- 
strated his great ability as a teacher. He had 
also given evidence of superior power as a public 
speaker. Accordingly, he was pretty well known 
at the age of twenty-three to that large circle of 
which Hiram was the centre; and the question 
of his future — more commonly shaping itself 



42 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

thus: the pulpit, or the law? was often debated 
with no little interest in many an Ohio home. 

As he turned his face eastward, Mr. Garfield 
probably did not pause to answer, or even ask, the 
question, " What has Hiram done for me ? " He 
always became so much a part of every place, and 
every place so much a part of him, that he was 
never well fitted for such a bit of self-analysis. 
First, there is the large question of nature and 
nurture. He held that every character is the 
joint product of these two causes. But how diffi- 
cult to assign to each its proper share of the prod- 
uct ! Besides, who can tell the effect of nature 
in determining nurture? Next comes up the 
question, "Which would have been better for 
Garfield, — young Hiram, or old Exeter or An- 
dover ? " At Hiram was freedom, a large society 
of opening minds, instructors learned enough to 
start him well in his studies, and large room for 
ability and force of character, of which he had a 
superabundance. He could do as much as he 
wanted to do, in pretty much his own way ; and 
he wanted to do a great deal. The especial ad- 
vantages at Exeter or Andover readily suggest 
themselves. 

Garfield always had a warm side for the small 



GAKFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 43 

schools in out-of-the-way places. He thought that 
the personal elements in education, which he 
mainly prized, acted in them with more power. 
Late in life, replying to what had been some- 
where said about necessary physical appliances, he 
said, — 

" To all that has been said, I most heartily assent. No 
words of mine shall in any way detract from the importance 
of every thing that has been urged; but I am not willing 
that this discussion should close without mention of the 
value of a true teacher. Give me a log hut, with only a 
simple bench, Mark Hopkins on one end and I on the other, 
and you may have all the buildings, apparatus, and libraries 
without him." 

Miss Booth was the strong individual force that 
acted upon him in Hiram, as President Hopkins 
was at Williamstown. Of his indebtedness to the 
one, he eloquently testified in his address ; of his 
indebtedness to the other, he spoke on numerous 
occasions. He has been heard to say, " I am sur- 
prised to meet President Hopkins — some thought 
or word of his — so often along the path of my 
life." All of this is most appreciative and gener- 
ous, — in a sense, both true and just : nevertheless, 
it may well be doubted whether, to such a nature 
as Garfield's, teachers, after he reached his twen- 



44 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

tieth year, were so important as he thought. It 
may well be questioned, now that he had got his 
bent, whether any school was or could be much 
more to him than a place to spread his tent while 
he surveyed the kingdom of knowledge. Proba- 
bly the Hiram students, as a body, did more for 
him than the Hiram faculty; and the same may 
be true of the Williams students and faculty. 
Mr. Rhodes justly said of him in his Cleveland 
speech, "All men were foils for his own swift 
blades." He was one of the few who do really 

" Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 

However these questions touching the growth 
of this choice spirit are settled, it was well for 
Garfield that he took his Ohio training to a New- 
England college. He never regretted, either his 
coming to Hiram, or his going to Williamstown. 
He always retained an unswerving affection for 
both schools. It was well, too, that on his gradua- 
tion he returned to his native State. According 
to Professor C. D. Wilber, he was strongly tempt- 
ed by a twenty-five-hundred-dollar salary not to 
return to Hiram. He discussed the subject with 
himself, and finally said, " They want me at Hiram. 



GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 45 

They cannot pay me much, but I ought to go." 
And so he came back, to receive a salary not more 
than one-fourth of the sum named. Sense of 
duty inspired his choice, and the end vindicated 
his wisdom. 

The two years at Williams College lie across 
the track of my story. That was an epoch of 
peculiar interest in his life. From 1850 to 1860 
President Garfield was in the formative stage, — 
a period in a man's life that he always regarded 
with peculiar interest. He said, at the Hiram 
commencement in 1880, " Oh, these hours of 
building ! If the Superior Being of the Universe 
would look down upon the world to find the 
most interesting object, it would be the unfin- 
ished, unformed character of young men and of 
young women." Still, interesting as those two 
years are, and notwithstanding that they cut 
the formative period of his life in two, they do 
not lie within the topic, " President Garfield in 
Hiram." 

He graduated with honor Aug. 6, 1856. Presi- 
dent Hopkins's baccalaureate sermon had for its 
subject, " Self-denial," and closed thus : " Go to 
your posts; take unto you the whole armor of 
God ; watch the signals and follow the footsteps 



46 'PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

of your Leader. That leader is not now in the 
form of the Man of Sorrows; not now does the 
sweat of agony rain from him. Him the armies 
of heaven follow; and he hath on his vesture 
and on his thigh a name written, ' King of kings 
and Lord of lords.' The conflict may be long, 
but' its issue is not doubtful. You may fall upon 
the field before the final peal of victory ; but be 
ye faithful unto death, and ye shall receive a 
crown of life." These sentences now read like 
a prophecy. 

IV. — GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 

In the fall of 1856 Mr. Garfield returned to 
the Eclectic Institute as teacher of ancient lan- 
guages. He was now nearly twenty-five years 
old. He entered upon his work with his wonted 
enthusiasm and ability, and with greatly enlarged 
mind and resources. At the end of the school 
year, Principal Hayden, after seven years of ser- 
vice, resigned. The School Board now took this 
action as recorded in the minutes : — 

" It was resolved, that the present teachers of the institu- 
tion be constituted a Board of Education, to conduct the 
educational concerns of the school, subject to the counsel and 
advice of the Board." 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 47 

This board of instruction 1 made Mr. Garfield 
its chairman, and he was so published in the 
catalogue for the year 1856-57. There appears 
to have been some hesitancy in making him the 
principal hi name, but he was principal in fact. 
The next year he became principal in name as 
well. His style now was, " Principal, and Teacher 
of Ancient Languages." Thus it continued until 
August, 1861, when he went to the army, and 
his de facto connection with the Institute ceased. 
But the Board thought he might return, — at 
least, they were not ready to part with his name : 
so he was announced as principal, both in 1862 
and 1863. He does not appear in the catalogue 
for 1864, but re-appears in 1865 and 1866 as advi- 
sory principal and lecturer. From this time on, 
he stands only among the trustees. Within the 
foregoing chronological limits, lie the life and 
services that are now to be described. As a 
matter of course, the heart of the story will be 
found in the five years reaching from 1856 to 
1861. 

A good preface to this account of Garfield's 
life and service as a teacher will be furnished by 

1 This Board consisted of J. A. Garfield, Norman Dunshee, 
H. W. Everest, J. H. Rhodes, and Almeda A. Booth. . 



48 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

two anecdotes that he related, at widely separated 
intervals, concerning his experience as a teacher 
in the district schools. They are also invaluable 
illustrations of his life and character. The first 
he told to two or three friends but a short time 
before he left Mentor for Washington, to be in- 
augurated President of the United States. The 
subject under discussion at the time was " office- 
seeking " in general, and the " second term " in 
particular. 

" The fall that I was eighteen years old, I travelled a con- 
siderable circuit round about Orange in quest of a district 
school to teach. I was refused in one place after another 
for different reasons ; so that at last I came home tired and 
discouraged. I had made up my mind that seeking posi- 
tions was not in harmony with my nature ; that I never 
should succeed in life if I hunted places ; and that I would 
make no further effort in that direction, but would wait and 
see what would come to me. An hour or two after reach- 
ing home with these conclusions fully wrought out in my 
mind, a man from an adjoining neighborhood called at my 
mother's house, and said he was ' huntin' widow Gaffield's 1 
Jimmie.' Pie wanted a teacher for his district, and he 
1 'lowed that Jimmie would do.' I was called in," said the 
President-elect, "and a bargain was soon concluded. The 
coining of this man confirmed me in the opinion that place- 

1 A local corruption of Garfield. 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 49 

seeking was not in my line ; and I have never asked any- 
body for a place from that day to this." 

The reader can reflect upon this story at his 
leisure. Here it suffices to say, that, in conse- 
quence of this contract, the future President of 
the United States taught his first school. The 
place was the "Ledge," in Solon, Cuyahoga 
County, O. ; the time, the winter of 1849-50. 
Afterwards he taught two other district schools, 
each one term, — one near Zanesville, Muskingum 
County ; and the other in Warrensville, Cuyahoga 
County. 

Years after Garfield had ceased to teach, and 
when he had already acquired a national reputa- 
tion as a statesman, he one day gave a lecture 
to the teachers' class in Hiram College. It was 
in this lecture that he related the second anec- 
dote : — 

" When I first taught a district school, 1 formed and car- 
ried out this plan : After I had gone to bed at night, I 
threw back the bedclothes from one side of the bed. Then 
I smoothed out the sheet with my hand. Next, I mentally 
constructed on this smooth surface my schoolroom. First 
I drew the aisles ; here I put the stove, there the teacher's 
desk ; in this place the water-pail and cup, in that the open 
space at the head of the room. Then I put in the seats, 



50 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

and placed the scholars upon them in their proper order. 
I said, Here is John, with Samuel by his side ; there Jane 
and Eliza ; and so on, until they were all placed. Then I 
took them up in order, beginning next my desk in this 
manner : This is Johnny Smith. What kind of boy is he ? 
What is his mind, and what his temper? How is he 
doing? What is he now as compared with a week ago? 
Can I do any thing more for him ? And so I went on from 
seat to seat, and from pupil to pupil, until I had made the 
circuit of the room. I found this study and review of 
my pupils of great benefit to them and to me. Besides, my 
ideal construction, made on the bed-sheet in the dark, aided 
me materially in the work." 

The reader can reflect upon this narrative also 
at his leisure. Here it suffices to say, that a 
young man who had the ingenuity, patience, and 
thoughtfulness to carry on such work as this, 
night after night, could not but succeed as a 
district-school teacher, not to speak of higher 
capacities. 

Now we will go on with the Hiram story. 

The field of instruction in the Institute was 
regularly allotted to the different teachers. But 
the published scheme was never fully carried out 
in practice. The majority of the students were 
pursuing selected studies. Calls for classes were 
more or less irregular. Hence the teachers 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 51 

were compelled to accommodate themselves to 
the wants of the students. Then their desire to 
shun ruts and narrowness, to gain breadth and 
to preserve freshness, as well as the desire to 
carry their individual methods and personal force 
through the whole school, tended in the same 
direction. Still, each teacher generally worked 
within certain lines, though the lines were not 
very straight or rigid. Accordingly, it must not 
be thought that Mr. Garfield taught all the Latin 
and Greek, or that he taught nothing else. He 
taught classes in classics and mathematics, his- 
tory, philosophy, criticism, English literature, rhet- 
oric, English analysis, and geology. Certainly his 
knowledge of these subjects was not that of the 
specialist, but it was sufficient for present de- 
mands. Nor must it be thought that the demands 
were small. The standard had been greatly raised 
since the day that young Garfield looked with 
such wonder upon a class in geometry. Many 
young men and women were then fitting for col- 
lege in Hiram, — some for the Freshman class, but 
more for the higher classes. Then there were 
many young men and women of age, ability, and 
character, who had no thought of going to college, 
but wanted the "best studies;" and these some- 



52 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

times tasked the powers of the teachers quite as 
fully as any others. Principal Garfield took more 
interest in some studies than in others ; but upon 
the whole it was hard to see that he did not teach 
all the studies named equally well. At some time 
all the studies taught in colleges, and more be- 
sides, engaged his particular attention, and aroused 
his special enthusiasm. He introduced Shaw's 
" English Literature," and Karnes's " Elements of 
Criticism," and awakened a special interest in them. 
He always taught the class in English analysis. 
This study was a special favorite with him, and 
nowhere else did he more shine as a teacher. 
Through this class most of the better scholars at 
some time passed, even if they considered them- 
selves thorough in it before. Probably no other 
of his classes is to-day remembered with equal 
interest by so many persons. Then his geology 
class, that recited at five o'clock in the morning, 
cannot be forgotten by a single surviving member. 
His method of teaching combined the technical 
question, the general question, the topic, and the 
teacher's own discussion of the question in hand. 
A critic might have said that the last element 
was too prominent, that he did too much himself, 
that he did not so much excel as a drill-master 






GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 53 

and a disciplinarian ; but, if fruit is the test of 
method, it would be hard to sustain the criticism. 
He strove to awaken the student's faculties. He 
sought to energize or vitalize him. He revealed 
the world to the student, and the student to him- 
self. He stimulated thought, created the habit 
of observation and reflection, aroused courage, 
widened the field of mental vision, and furnished 
inspiration in unlimited measures. If his regimen 
was somewhat deficient in the forces that push the 
student, it was strong in the forces that draw him. 
His associate teachers had more than ordinary 
ability, and were thoroughly respected by the 
school ; but those scholars who had reached his 
zone always made an effort, if necessary, to be in 
at least one of his classes. 

In the communication already quoted from, 
President Everest of Butler University sets these 
down as Garfield's striking characteristics as a 
teacher : — 

"1. He was always clear and certain. 

"2. He impressed the main things, but passed perhaps 
too lightly over the subordinate portions. 

" 3. He had rare ability at illustration. 

" 4. He gave more attention to the boy than to the book. 
He strove to develop the student, not the lesson or science. 



54 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

" 5. He was abundant in praise of success, but sparing of 
blame. 

"6. He inspired his students with a spirit of investiga- 
tion and conquest. 

" 7. By frequent and rapid reviews he kept the whole 
work in hand, and gave it completeness." 

Principal Garfield's chapel lectures were a great 
source of instruction and influence. Of these 
he gave many hundreds, ranging over education, 
teaching, studies, books, methods of study and 
reading, physical geography, geology, history, the 
Bible, morals, current topics, and life questions. 
These lectures were full of fresh facts, new 
thoughts, striking illustrations, and were warm 
with the glow of his own life. His two years in 
Williams College had given his mind some new 
facets. He brought back the best thoughts of Dr. 
Hopkins, and sowed them in Hiram soil. His 
mind was growing every day, and the studies that 
nourished him nourished his pupils as well. He 
generally spoke from notes that he had carefully 
prepared, and that he carefully preserved. If 
these notes should be brought forth from their 
hiding-place and published, men would be aston- 
ished at the sweep of his thought, the versatility 
of his mind, and the fertility of his resources. 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 55 

He appeared frequently as a preacher, both 
in the pulpit of the Hiram church and in the 
chapel. His sermons, of which more by and by, 
added much to his influence over his students. 
Here it should be said, when he came to the front 
in 1857, the character of the school somewhat 
changed. Its genius was less theological or bibli- 
cal, and more secular or human. The ecclesias- 
tical way of looking at things somewhat receded 
with the retirement of Principal Hayden. But 
morals, religion, and Bible study were by no 
means forgotten. Noble ideals of life and charac- 
ter, ideals of manliness, courage, reverence, and 
truth, were constantly kept in view. What 
Arnold of Rugby called "moral thoughtfulness " 
— the inquiring love of truth and practical love 
of goodness — was made prominent. Charles 
Kingsley and Thomas Hughes were a great deal 
read in Hiram in those days, and the Hiram type 
of Christianity became somewhat " muscular." 
Withal, such of the students as could receive it 
were filled with the Principal's own largeness of 
nature. 

His rhetorical class — known in those days as 
" Garfield's division" — was a great theatre of 
interest and improvement. He had great skill in 



56 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

conducting such a class ; especially was he a help- 
ful critic. This class will not be forgotten by its 
members, nor did he forget it. One of his remi- 
niscences in his re-union speech, June 10, 1880, 
was this : — 

" Some may remember the time that I had an exercise 
which I remember with great pleasure, — when I called a 
young lad to the rostrum, and said, ' Now, in the next two 
minutes, you will speak to the best of your ability on the 
following subject ; ' and gave him the subject, and let him 
wrestle with it. It was a trying thing for the young lads, 
but they very seldom got thrown." 

Strong as was Mr. Garfield's intellectual side, 
his moral side was even stronger. He was full 
of appreciation and generosity. He was keenly 
alive to the rights of men, even the lowest and 
the least worthy. He respected human nature. 
Tenderness, compassion, and sympathy abounded 
in him. His sense of justice to others was keen, 
no matter whether he always insisted upon its 
being rendered to himself or not. It hurt him to 
hurt others. He interested himself in the young 
and in the weak. He often joined the boys in 
their sports on the campus. Once two of his spe- 
cial friends were " choosing sides " for the game. 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 57 

Two small boys appeared, and asked to be cliosen. 
The choosers objected to them that they were 
small, and would spoil the play. "If they can- 
not play, I will not," said Garfield. They were 
chosen, and the play went on. In his address on 
"The Elements of Success" will be found this 
paragraph : — 

" I feel a profounder reverence for a boy than for a man. 
I never meet a ragged boy of the street without feeling that 
I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities 
may be buttoned up under his shabby coat. When I meet 
you in the full flush of mature life, I see nearly all there 
is of you ; but among these boys are the great men of the 
future, — the heroes of the next generation, the philosophers, 
the statesmen, the philanthropists, the great reformers and 
moulders of the next age. Therefore, I say, there is a 
peculiar charm to me in the exhibitions of young people 
engaged in the business of education." 

General Garfield once told some Hiram students, 
that no man is ever loved simply because he 
has a great or brilliant mind. He may be much 
respected, or greatly admired, but not loved. 
The intellectual ray is powerful, but also fierce 
and pitiless. It is not until the heart ray blends 
with the mental, and tempers it, as the heat ray 
the light ray of the sunbeam, that the emotive 



58 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

nature is touched. Feeling lies deeper than logic 
can penetrate. Only the heart can speak to the 
heart. In harmony with this law so beautifully 
formulated, the students respected and admired 
his ability ; but the force that won them was the 
heart force. Garfield's great, tender heart, his 
all-embracing sympathy, his nice delicacy of feel- 
ing, his quick appreciation of every thing ethically 
good or spiritually beautiful, will be remembered 
farther and longer than his powerful logical facul- 
ties or his ample knowledge. He called out the 
demonstrativeness and affections of men in a way 
almost unprecedented. His heart, none but the 
utterly obdurate could resist. To him the phleg- 
matic would stir, the cold warm, the icy melt. 
When he put his great brotherly arm around 
a discouraged or fainting boy, — poor, homesick, 
or blind to the way before him, — the boy very 
likely shed tears; but somehow the mists began 
to clear away from his vision, and his heart grew 
strong. Said one years ago, " Then began to 
grow up in me an admiration and love for Gar- 
field that has never abated, and the like of which 
I have never known. A bow of recognition, or 
a single word, from him, was to me an inspira- 
tion." 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 59 

Those who have witnessed the marvellous draw- 
ing-out of men's hearts towards General Garfield 
in the last year, have simply seen on a vast scale 
what was seen in Hiram school more than a score 
of years ago. The revelations of Washington 
and Elberon have caused little or no surprise to 
the Hiram fellowship : only the lamentable occa- 
sion that brought out the revelations has been a 
surprise to them. The faith and fortitude, the 
constancy and courage, the patience and piety, 
that shone so bright in the White House and in 
Mr. Francklyn's cottage by the sea, are just what 
this fellowship, the occasion being given, would 
have expected. It was said that the eyes of the 
wife of William the Silent were full of unwept 
tears : similarly the heart of the late President was 
full of unshed goodness, gentleness, and tender- 
ness. 

Perhaps the foregoing paragraphs taken alone 
will create a false impression. Let it not be sup- 
posed that the Hiram regimen was only soft and 
winning. The Principal's hand was as firm as his 
heart was tender ; and on due occasion he could be 
exceedingly severe. He never scolded, never be- 
came angry ; but his reproofs were all the sterner 
because of the large background of feeling. 



60 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Boys of ability and promise came to Hiram in 
the period of 1856-61, as they still do, having 
meagre ideas of studies and of themselves. They 
expected, possibly because they had given the 
matter small thought, to study two or three terms, 
and then to go back to the farm or the shop. In 
time many of these were touched by Garfield's 
energizing power. Their minds began to open; 
new aspirations began to stir in their hearts ; and 
they longed to carry their studies beyond the 
limits first set. Often these boys had troubles 
peculiarly their own. Some were poor ; some 
were tethered to 'home ; some wanted courage and 
self-reliance ; some tended to despondency. Mr. 
Garfield found them out. He remembered his 
own experience. He seemed to read by intuition 
a mind that teemed with new facts, ideas, and 
impressions ; that was stirred by a new spirit and 
power ; that sighed for wider and higher activity. 
These students he aided with his counsel and en- 
couragement. He advised and sometimes expos- 
tulated with parents. He took great pleasure in 
" capturing boys," as he called it ; and more than 
one was saved to himself and to the world by his 
friendly mediation. A boy who wanted to study, 
and was poor, called out his full interest. The 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 61 

following letter, written to a district-school teacher 
who was struggling with the hard questions of life, 
— a letter already often published, — will illustrate 
the bent of his nature : — 

"Hiram, Jan. 15, 1857. 

" My dear Brother, — I was made very glad, a few days 

since, by the receipt of your letter. It was a very acceptable 

New Year's present, and I take great pleasure in responding. 

You have given a vivid picture of a community in which 

intelligence and morality have been neglected, and I am 

glad you are disseminating the light. Certainly men must 

have some knowledge in order to do right. God first said, 

1 Let there be light : ' afterwards he said, ' It is very good.' 

I am glad to hear of your success in teaching, but I approach 

with much more interest the consideration of the question 

you have proposed. Brother mine, it is not a question to be 

discussed in the spirit of debate, but to be thought over and 

prayed over as a question ' out of which are the issues of 

life.' You will agree with me, that every one must decide 

and direct his own course in life; and the only service 

friends can afford is to give us the data from which we must 

draw our own conclusion and decide our course. Allow me, 

then, to sit beside you, and look over the field of life, and 

see what are its aspects. I am not one of those who advise 

every one to undertake the work of a liberal education: 

indeed, I believe that in two-thirds of the cases such advice 

would be unwise. The great body of the people will be, and 

ought to be, (intelligent) farmers and mechanics ; and, in 

many respects, these pass the most independent and happy 



62 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

lives. But God has endowed some of his children with 
desires and capabilities for a more extended field of labor 
and influence ; and so every life should be shaped according 
to 'what the man hath.' Now, in reference to yourself, / 
know you have capabilities for occupying positions of high 
and important trust in the scenes of active life ; and I am 
sure you will not call it flattery in me, nor egotism in your- 
self, to say so. Tell me: do you not feel a spirit stirring 
within you that longs to know, to do, and to dare, — to hold 
converse with the great world of thought ; that holds before 
you some high and noble object to which the vigor of your 
mind and the strength of your arm may be given ? Do you 
not have longings like these, which you breathe to no one, 
and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass through 
life unsatisfied and regretful? I am sure you have them, 
and they will forever cling round your heart till you obey 
their mandate. They are the voices of* that nature which 
God has given you, and which, when obeyed, will bless you 
and your fellow-men. Now, all this might be true, and yet 
it might be your duty not to follow that course. If your 
duty to your father or your mother demands that you take 
another, I shall rejoice to see you taking that other coarse. 
The path of duty is where we all ought to walk, be that 
where it may. But I sincerely hope you will not, without 
an earnest struggle, give up a course of liberal study. Sup- 
pose you could not begin your study again till after your 
majority. It will not be too late then : but you will gain in 
many respects; you will have more maturity of mind to 
appreciate whatever you may study. You may say you will 
be too old to begin the course ; but how could you better 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 63 

spend the earlier days of life ? We should not measure life 
by the days and moments that we pass on earth. 

'The life is measured by tbe soul's advance; 
The enlargement of its powers ; the expanded field 
"Wherein it ranges, till it burns and glows 
With heavenly joy, with high and heavenly hope.' 

"It need be no discouragement that you be obliged to 
hew your own way, and pay your own charges. You can 
go to school two terms every year, and pay your own way. 
I know this, for I did so when teachers' wages were much 
lower than they are now. It is a great truth, that ' where 
there is a will, there is a way.' It may be that by and by 
your father could assist you. It may be that even now he 
could let you commence on your own resources, so that you 
could begin immediately. Of this you know, and I do not. 
I need not tell you how glad I should be to assist you in 
your work ; but, if you cannot come to Hiram while I am 
here, I shall still hope to hear that you are determined to go 
on as soon as the time will permit. Will you not write me 
your .thoughts on this whole subject, and tell me your pros- 
pects ? We are having a very good time in the school this 
winter. Give my love to Rolden and Louise, and believe me 
always your friend and brother, J. A. Garfield. 



"P. S. — Miss Booth and Mr. Rhodes send their love to 
you. Henry James was here, and made me a good visit a 
few days ago. He is doing well. He and I have talked of 
going to see you this winter. I fear we cannot do it. How 



64 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

far is it from here ? Was it prophetic that my last word to 
you ended on the picture of Congress Capitol ? " 1 

He seemed always to say and do the right thing 
at the right time. His wit never came too late. 
Even trivial things became potent because he did 
them. One student points with affectionate pride 
to the words, " earpe diem" in Garfield's hand, on 
the fly-leaf of his Horace. Another has shown 
me this page of autobiography, that he wrote 
many years ago. The scene lies in the fall term 
of 1856, the first after the return from Williams- 
town : — 

" I had to leave school at the close of the term for finan- 
cial and home reasons. I was exceedingly anxious to go 
on. My faculties were pretty fully worked up; the king- 
dom of knowledge stretched away before me on every hand ; 
my mind was opening on many questions. Life on the 
farm, or any life that ignored study, became more and more 
painful to me. My state of mind became known to a few 
friends, who did what they could with their sympathy. 
Garfield tried to steady me and give me courage. At last 
the end came. After participating in some public literary 
exercises, I withdrew from the chapel. A few friends, Gar- 
field among them, went with me to the lower hall, where we 
said good-by. They returned to the chapel ; and I started 

1 The letter is written on " Congress " paper. The last word 
of the previous sentence is on the picture of the Capitol. 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 65 

homeward, fearing that I should go to school no more. 
When I had gone many miles, I discovered under the thread 
of my hat-lining a note that ran thus : — 

" ' You need to guard against a tone, for I see that you are a 
little inclined to fall into a measured rhythm. You say sense 
instead of since. James.' 

" How much influence that note has had upon my life," 
the page reads, " I do not know ; but I feel sure that it was 
not small." 

Perhaps it is needless to say that such a teacher 
and such a man was very successful as a school 
administrator. He had nothing of the regulation 
schoolmaster about him, and he put red tape to 
small use. He never spent his force on little things. 
He understood what was, and what was not, essen- 
tial to discipline and good order ; and he secured 
the first all the more readily because he was indif- 
ferent to the second. He always had a code of 
printed rules that he expounded each term; he 
exacted weekly reports of conduct : but his own 
personality was worth far more than both rules 
and reports. His management of disciplinary 
cases was skilful. On one occasion, after morning 
prayers, he read impressively selections from Prov. 
vii. He added, "... [naming three young men] 
are expelled from this school." Not another word 



66 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

was said, but the whole made a profound impres- 
sion. He had unusual power in controlling and 
influencing bad boys. He did not always make 
them good ; far from it : but he had so much heart 
and nature, was so free from cant and affectation, 
that rough fellows who despised a religious pro- 
fession respected and loved him. Many a boy was 
thus inclined towards goodness, whom austerity 
and pretension would have driven to evil. 

President Garfield left the academy for the field 
and the forum at the age of thirty years. But 
this was not until he had demonstrated his capa- 
city for the highest educational work and honor. 
He had taught twenty-four terms : viz., three in 
the district school, six in Hiram before going to 
college, and fifteen afterwards, — eight years in all. 
Had he remained an educator, which he had not 
intended to do more than he had intended to 
preach, he would have proved himself worthy of 
the highest position in the land. Other things 
being equal, he was never greater than in Hiram 
in the years 1856 to 1861. He came in contact 
with from one hundred and seventy-five to three 
hundred students a term, of all ages from fifteen 
to twenty-five, and of all grades of ability. These 
students he fired with enthusiasm. The ordinary 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 67 

terms of respect and affection do not meet the 
case. Their idea of him was the largest that they 
were capable of forming. They could think of 
nothing more. It is common for students to 
form exaggerated opinions of their teachers, — 
opinions that larger knowledge of men generally 
shatters. But not so in this case. As their 
minds grew with years, he grew too ; and they 
never had occasion to measure him over again. 
As these young hero-worshippers went out from 
Hiram, some to college and some to business, Mr. 
Garfield was the standard by whom they measured 
men. As, with rapturous devotion, they told men 
of his qualities, they were met sometimes with 
incredulity, sometimes with a pitying smile, some- 
times with a sneer. They were told that Mr. Gar- 
field might answer very well for a little place like 
Hiram, but that they must not expect to see men 
accept their estimate of him. But they continued 
to insist that time would show him equal to the 
highest honors. The very title by which they had 
been accustomed to call him at school clung to 
their lips. Hiram was not then a college, and the 
teachers were not commonly called professors. 
He became colonel, general, representative, sen- 
ator, and president; but plain "Mr. Garfield" 



68 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

always seemed to best befit Hiram students. Still 
further, his home was in Hiram for many years 
after he ceased to teach. His relations to the 
school and to the community in those years will 
soon be described. Here it suffices to say, his 
influence was largely felt by the students, even 
when he did not know their names or faces. 
What is more, to gain his approval in school, or to 
be worthy of it afterwards, was an ideal that many 
a young man or woman carried out into life. 
These things Mr. Garfield did naturally, and 
almost unconsciously. His method was spontane- 
ity. However, as years went by, his Hiram friends 
were able to render him substantial service in his 
public career. And this they were always glad to 
do. To serve him, some of them hardly counted 
their lives dear unto themselves. 

Perhaps people outside the Hiram fellowship 
should make some allowance for the enthusiasm 
of youth, and for the illusions that time works. 
However that may be, I cannot refrain from 
making quotations from two private communi- 
cations recently received. Both are from old 
Hiram students ; one is an alumnus of Williams, 
and the other of Oberlin : — 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 69 

" One day in reading the eleventh ode of Horace, Book 
I., he had my book; and when it came back to me he had 
written on a fly-leaf the phrase ' carpe diem,' as a kind of 
motto. I have the book still ; and, though the pencil-marks 
are somewhat dim, I shall keep this book. When we wanted 
a motto for the Delphic, he gave us ' Possunt quia posse 
videntur,' and translated it for us, ' They are strong because 
they think they are strong.' Both of these are real Garfield 
mottoes ; and I have thought, that, while he was wonderfully 
gifted by nature, few men ever improved their opportunities 
as he did. He not only had courage and inspiration for 
himself, but he filled every one who approached him with 
much of his own spirit. Now that he is gone, and the 
vision has fled, I feel like using the words of the disciples 
who came from Emmaus, 'Did not our heart burn within 
us while he talked with us by the way ? ' 

" I have been thinking that some one should write a 
paper or lecture about Garfield as a teacher. I really feel 
that he was one of the greatest teachers who have appeared 
in this country. What wisdom, what power, what inspira- 
tion, there was in him ! It has been my fortune to enjoy 
the acquaintance of some very distinguished teachers ; but 
even Dr. Hopkins seems to me far inferior to 'Mr. Gar- 
field.' He taught all his life, — in the pulpit, on the plat- 
form, and in the halls of Congress. Instead of laboring 
for brilliant periods and high-sounding perorations, he en- 
deavored to make his subjects understood, and to teach the 
people the science of government." 



70 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Too much prominence cannot be given to the 
fact that Gen. Garfield taught all his life. Nor 
is it easy to over-estimate the influence of his 
teacher-life upon his whole public career. No 
doubt he would have taken a strong interest in 
public education, had he never taught ; but his 
experience as a teacher greatly widened and 
deepened his interest. Besides, that experience 
profoundly influenced his manner of thought and 
discussion. To instruct his hearers, to throw 
light upon his subject, was always his supreme 
ambition in public speaking. An old Hiram stu- 
dent, who often heard him on the stump, once 
said, " The General never succeeds so well in 
dealing with a great audience as when he han- 
dles it just as he handled his class." Naturally, 
the educators of the land took great pride in him 
as a statesman ; and, now that he is dead, some 
affectionately call him "our teacher Presi- 
dent." 

A lady who has contributed other valuable 
memorabilia to this sketch thus writes of Gar- 
field's student and teacher days : — 

" I have often thought a complete conduct of life might 
be made from his apt quotations and happy generalizations. 
His studious habits never gave him a pre-occupied air. He 



GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HD3AM. 71 

seemed so to command his time that leisure belonged to him 
as much as study. 

"I was never his classmate, but was once a fellow- 
member of a vacation lyceum that met in the lower chapel. 
The lyceum had night sessions ; and the darkness was made 
apparent by the tallow candles, whose tendency to drip was 
a constant menace. When any one read an essay, a mar- 
shal accompanied him to the rostrum, and illuminated the 
face, if not the paper, of the reader. Mr. Garfield read 
a paper, 'The Millennium. ' He was a firm believer in a 
swift-coming millennium ; he cited authorities to prove that 
it was surely coming; proved its desirability, and quoted 
some very good poetry ; but wound up with, ' Let us, there- 
fore, do all that we can to hasten the millennium.' A stu- 
dent who had actually printed some of his own poetry was 
critic. He criticised the 'Let us.' General Garfield was 
accustomed to say that this criticism was of great value 
to him, and that then and there he dropped the hortatory 
* Let us.' 

"'I am a part of all that I have met,' was one of his 
favorite quotations. In his class-room his personality was 
as beneficent, as all-pervasive, as the air we breathe. Each 
student was etched upon his memory so that he never forgot 
a name, face, or initial. Often this remembrance brought 
tears of joy to the eyes of his former pupils after the teacher 
was lost in the statesman. He once said of himself, 'Of 
two courses, the one offering improvement, and the other 
pecuniary reward, I have always sought to choose the one 
that offered improvement.' " 



72 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Mr. Garfield's administration lifted the Eclectic 
Institute into new prominence. The attendance 
of students did not indeed increase, owing to the 
growing competition of other schools, especially 
within the Disciple pale; but its character was 
raised, and its influence was enlarged. There 
was a higher standard of scholarship. Hiram cul- 
ture became more mature. Students outside of 
the church were drawn into the school in increas- 
ing numbers. Educators became familiar with 
the name of Hiram and its head. The scope of 
the work done is pretty fully shown by the Princi- 
pal's report to the State Commissioner of Common 
Schools, for the year 1858. It is here somewhat 
condensed : — 

" Students since the founding of the Institute, counting 
by terms, 5,045; males 2,881, females 2,164. Twenty-five 
students have graduated from regular colleges, and ten are 
now in college. The Board of Instruction consists of a 
principal and seven associate teachers, four male and three 
female. The number of students enrolled for the year end- 
ing Aug. 31, 1858, by terms, as before, 520. Two have en- 
tered college during the year, and eight now here are one 
year advanced in the college course. Number of students 
studying common branches, 250 ; ancient languages, 75 ; 
modern, eight ; higher English branches, 190. 

" The aim of the school is to hold the rank of a first-class 



garfield's outside work. 73 

collegiate seminary; to train teachers for their duty in the 
public schools, and to prepare students for an advanced 
standing in college. One of the peculiarities of the Eclectic 
is a clause in its charter providing for the introduction of 
the Bible as a text-book. It is introduced in no sectarian 
attitude ; but the sacred literature, history, and morals of 
the Bible are regarded as legitimate theme for academic in- 
struction. The Institute is constantly increasing in influ- 
ence and number of students, and is now more prosperous 
than ever." 



V. — GARFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 

But teaching and lecturing did not exhaust 
Mr. Garfield's activity. He was all the time 
carrying on important outside work in several 
fields. This must now be sketched, not indeed 
fully, but for illustration. 

First, may be mentioned his labors at teachers' 
institutes. His ability as a teacher, and especially 
as a lecturer, strongly recommended him to the 
institute committees as well as to the teachers 
who attended them. Frequent calls for lectures 
came to him from the various lecture associations 
round about. Admirable lectures on " Sir Walter 
Scott " and " Germany," as well as other topics, 
lie to-day among his unpublished papers. 

He preached more or less before he went to 



74 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

college. At college lie preached frequently to 
two or three small churches of Disciples within 
reach of Williamstown. After his return to- 
Hiram, he continued to preach until he went 
into the army. For five full years, he preached 
somewhere nearly every Sunday. A number of 
churches can be named to which he preached 
"one-half his time" for several years. He ap- 
peared occasionally in the pulpits of churches 
where he had no regular engagements. At the 
great "yearly meetings," where thousands gath- 
ered under the old " Bedford tent " or under the 
shade, he was a favorite preacher. His sermons 
live only in the hearts of those who heard them. 
They were strong in the ethical rather than in the 
distinctively evangelical element. He had small 
interest in purely theological or ecclesiastical 
topics. He inclined to Coleridge's canon, " That 
is truth which finds me." His stricter brethren 
found much fault with him because he was not 
more denominational ; some said he lacked " unc- 
tion : " but the people, wherever he went, would 
turn out to hear Garfield preach. He greatly 
admired the life and character of Paul the apostle ; 
and one of his ablest sermons, remembered b}~ 
many to this day, was upon that subject. In 



gakfield's outside work. 75 

August, 1860, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Garfield 
attended the Stark County Yearly Meeting at 
Alliance, O. The old preacher preached Sunday 
morning, the young one Sunday afternoon. Mr. 
Robert MofYet, now of Cleveland, O., has just 
reproduced from his " sketch-book " a report of 
Garfield's sermon, written at the time. No doubt 
many readers will be glad to see the framework 
of a Garfield sermon. 



" He took for his text the following passages : ' In him 
was life, and the life was the light of men' (John i. 4). 
' Let your light so shine before men that they may see your 
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven* 
(Matt. v. 16). 

" In the exordium he drew a contrast between the giving 
of the old law, and the giving of the law of the spirit of life 
in Christ Jesus. The one was given amid the awful thun- 
der and smoke of Sinai; the other, amid the quiet and 
glory of nature's mountain scenery in Judea. The one was 
given in a manner to terrify the people ; the other, in cir- 
cumstances which invited the multitude to draw near to 
Jesus. The one was the awful voice of the unseen God ; 
the other, the voice of God in a Friend and Brother. 

" He then took up the subject of life and Jight as found 
in the texts. 

" I. The Law of its Being : constitutional law, — the 
law by which this life must be in us. 



76 PEESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

"1. We must be in him. Spiritual life is spiritual union 
with Christ. 

" 2. The union must be intimate. When a scion is grafted 
into the stock, care is taken to establish a very close and 
intimate union, so that the life of the tree or vine may be 
imparted to it. So our union with Christ must be very 
intimate. External forms do not constitute an intimate 
union. There must be the faith and love of the heart. 
There must be a complete surrender of the will to Christ. 

"3. As the scion grafted into the stock must be capable 
of receiving life, — must not be dead, — so the man grafted 
into Christ must not be totally dead, but must be capable of 
receiving life from the fountain of life, — Christ Jesus. ' If 
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.' He has been 
quickened from his ' death in trespasses and in sins.' 

" II. The Law of its Action : — 

" 1. The life of Christ transferred becomes light. When 
we take Christ for our example, when we draw our inspira- 
tion from him, when his life is in us as a controlling inspira- 
tion and power, then do we become the light of the world. 

"2. 'Let your light so shine.' We cannot dim the light 
which comes from Christ, but we can 

" (a) Bring something between us and Jesus Christ, and 
prevent his shining upon us. We can fail to maintain that 
intimate union with Christ, who is the source of life, — that 
life which is the light of men. 

" (b) We can place something between us and others, and 
thus hinder our light from shining before men. We need 
to let our light shine out into all the dark places. What 
for? 



garfield's outside work. 77 

" (c) To induce men to glorify God our Father. The 
world demands a lived gospel as well as a preached gospel. 
Christians need to be living epistles, known and read of all 
men. A dying world is calling for that life which is the 
light of men." 

President Garfield's connection with the min- 
istry has been the theme of mnch curious inquiry. 
Hence it may be well to state some general facts 
connected therewith. 

He was never a minister in the commonly 
accepted sense. The Disciples' Church originated 
in a revolt from the old standards of doctrine and 
polity, and thus gave more room to personal force 
and inspiration than the older and more conserva- 
tive bodies. " To exercise his gifts," was each 
brother's privilege. Such exercise was directly 
encouraged. Hence " the liberty of prophesy- 
ing " took a wide range. What is more, even the 
brethren who were known as preachers passed 
into the ministerial body, and out of it, with com- 
parative ease. It must be remembered that the 
Disciples were a young body thirty years ago, and 
that they had not then attained to their present 
degree of order and discipline. Mr. Garfield had 
no other ordination than the approval and encour- 
agement of the churches. Whether at any time 



78 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 



he intended to devote his life to preaching, must 
perhaps remain in doubt. If he did, it must have 
been before he went to college. The probability 
is, that from the time when he began to preach he 
held it an unsettled question, until he decided it 
in the negative. To a few persons in his confi- 
dence, he definitely announced, as early as 1857 or 
1858, that he should not be a preacher. His 
action was in harmony with this announcement. 
While preaching week by week, he was taking an 
active part in politics, and was carrying on a 
course of reading in the law. That the pulpit 
took a strong hold of his mind, cannot be ques- 
tioned. Once he was called to the pulpit of what 
is now the Central Church of Cincinnati, but de- 
clined. No doubt he would have achieved high 
distinction as a preacher, but he did not feel that 
he had the inward vocation for the work. His 
genius drew him to the State by its very bent, as 
any one who has followed his history can* see. 
Ceasing to preach at the same time that he ceased 
to teach (save an occasional later discourse), his 
preaching had been not only the source of much 
good to others, but a source of great strength to 
him, both as a man and as a public servant. 

Here are presented all the facts needed to 



GARFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 79 

answer the question of Garfield's having been a 
preacher, that occupied so much attention the 
last Presidential campaign. Sometimes he was 
made the victim of violent attacks ; sometimes, of 
ill-considered defences. On the one hand it was 
said he had " abandoned the ministry ; " and on 
the other replied, that he did not preach much or 
long, that he was only a "lay preacher," and 
things of that sort. The history now given shows 
that there was no room for the attack, and no 
need of the apology. 

One incident of peculiar interest rose out of Mr. 
Garfield's short ministry. He was preaching in 
Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga County, where infidel- 
ity had long had a strong grasp. Spiritualism 
had also taken a strong hold of the community. 
Mr. William Denton, an itinerant Spiritualistic 
and scientific lecturer and debater, occasionally 
visited the village, in which he gained a large fol- 
lowing. So he did in other similar centres in the 
Western Reserve. His particular effort was to 
overthrow the Bible. He sometimes followed the 
line of argument marked out by Paine one hun- 
dred years ago, and pursued by Col. Ingersoll 
to-day. But his favorite weapon was the discov- 
eries of science, especially geology. These he so 



80 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

interpreted as to sap faith in the Mosaic history. 
More narrowly, he advocated the development 
theory. Mr. Denton was a man of considerable 
discursive reading : he made pretensions to being 
a practical geologist, and was a public speaker of 
much fluency and force. According to his cus- 
tom, he threw out a challenge in Chagrin Falls, 
to all comers, to meet him in debate upon his 
favorite ground. The Hiram teacher and preach- 
er took up the glove. At the time he had no 
special knowledge of the subject. He had studied 
geology at college, and had perhaps read a few 
books on the science since. He made his prepara- 
tion with his usual thoroughness. Instead of 
"two days," as one historian has glibly said, he 
devoted weeks and even months to the study of 
the subject. In the holidays of 1858 the debate 
came on. Mr. Denton's friends expected an easy 
victory, so did Mr. Denton himself; and even 
Mr. Garfield's friends looked forward with much 
fear and trembling. The roads and weather could 
hardly have been worse. Nevertheless, public 
interest and even excitement ran high; and the 
largest audience-room in the town was packed 
with eager listeners day after day and night after 
night, for nearly a week. The contest need not 



GARFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 81 

here be followed point by point. Suffice it to 
say, that was before Mr. Darwin, in " The Origin 
of Species," gave evolution its present shaping; 
and the pro}30sition in dispute stated the doctrine 
as it had been left by Lamarck and the author 
of "The Vestiges of Creation." Mr. Garfield's 
strength and resources proved ample. He rose to 
the level of the occasion, and surpassed expecta- 
tions. The Christian portion of the community 
claimed a decided triumph ; the irreligious either 
admitted it, or called it a " drawn battle ; " while 
Mr. Denton said that his antagonist was the ablest 
and the noblest that he had ever met. His influ- 
ence in all the country round about immediately 
waned, and never regained its former height. 

This debate was coincident with a dawning of 
popular interest in scientific subjects in Mr. Gar- 
field's constituency, and in much wider circles. 
Many important results followed the debate. 
First, the defences of the Christian faith were 
strengthened in a considerable region of country. 
In the second place, it added much to the defend- 
er's power and influence. Third, it led at once to 
a great quickening of interest in science among 
Hiram students. Fourth, the interest reached out 
into the larger community of which Hiram was 



82 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

the centre ; and more invitations to lecture on 
scientific topics than he could possibly accept 
flowed in upon the debater. 

At the very time of his return from Williams 
College, President Garfield was drawn into poli- 
tics. This was due to several causes. First may 
be named the bent of his mind already mentioned. 
Next the inspiring Presidential campaign of 1856. 
Now the Republican party, born in a day, first 
came into national prominence. The attempt to 
limit the extension of slaver}^ took full possession 
of his soul, and Gen. Fremont's candidacy fired his 
imagination. Mr. Garfield made several speeches 
that campaign in Hiram and adjoining towns. 
The next year he took a more prominent part in 
the canvass. Year by year, both the number and 
the geographical range of his speeches increased. 
He soon became a recognized political force in 
Portage County. In 1859 he was chosen State 
Senator from the Portage-Summit district. He 
was now twenty-eight years old. That campaign 
he appeared in Akron on the same platform with 
Mr. Chase, then candidate for Governor; and one 
good judge said the Senatorial candidate made the 
better speech. He served in the Senate one term, 
and at the close entered a still wider field of ac- 



Garfield's outside work. 83 

tivity and influence. Nothing more need be said 
of his entry into politics than that his rise was 
rapid, almost instantaneous. As early as 1859, in 
which campaign he took an active part, he had be- 
come a favorite speaker in a considerable section 
of the State ; and in the Senate he immediately 
came to the front. 

As a matter of course, Hiram school received 
only a part of its Principal's energies, particularly 
after 1859. Preaching, lecturing, politics, and his 
law-reading made heavy and constant draughts 
upon him ; but he was so full of faculties, of 
strength, and resources, that he did not seem 
weakened thereby. In 1859 or 1860 this was a 
common day's work for him : a chapel lecture in 
the morning ; five solid hours of teaching, perhaps 
six ; attention to administrative details ; a speech 
ten miles away in the evening ; home to bed at 
midnight. If the next day was Sunday, he would 
give two sermons, perhaps fifteen miles off. Of 
course no man who covers such a field as this can 
be called a specialist. Still, he always kept abreast 
of his school-work. The range of his ability, and 
the great strength that he put into whatever he 
undertook, attracted public attention, gave promi- 
nence to the school, and increased the pride that 
his pupils felt in him. 



84 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Only the most vigorous and wide-reaching in 
tellectual life could sustain such labors as these. 
Garfield's mind was ever fresh, his thoughts ever 
new. His reading lay, first, along the lines of 
his work, — teaching, lecturing, preaching, and 
politics; second, in 1858, he entered his name as 
a student-at-law with a Cleveland firm. His legal 
studies he carried on at home, and with such 
thoroughness and zeal, that he fitted for the Ohio 
bar in the time usually required by students who 
have nothing else on hand. But, third, he read 
widely outside of his work, both present and 
prospective. He read "hard reading," but fiction 
and poetry as well. He naturalized Tennyson, of 
whom he became a profound student, in Hiram. 
In later years he read everywhere, — on the cars, 
in the omnibus, and after retiring at night. He 
rarely, or never, went away from home, even for 
a few hours, but he took his book. He made 
special efforts to procure out-of-the-way reading. 
If he was leaving Washington for a few days, 
and had nothing requiring immediate attention on 
hand, he would go to the great Library of Con- 
gress, and say to the librarian, " Mr. Spofford, give 
me something that I don't know any thing about." 
A stray book coming to him in this way would 



garfield's outside work. 85 

often lead to a special study of the subject. In 
this way he kept his mind full and fresh. 

But, with all his reading, he could not have 
done the work that he did, but for the ready and 
powerful grasp with which he took hold of a 
subject, and for the wondrous ease and quickness 
with which- he could organize the material that he 
needed. He seemed to see at a glance the rela- 
tions of things. In his studies he strove to get 
hold of the underlying principle, and was never 
satisfied until he could reduce facts to order. 
Once he said, " I could not stay in politics unless 
I found some philosophy." Hence the breadth 
of his views of all subjects. Here is also the expla- 
nation of Judge Cooley's remark in his Ann Arbor 
oration : " He always discussed large subjects in a 
large way." His powers, the whole mass of his 
being, came to be under the control of his will. 

General Garfield was always absorbed and happy 
in his work, in studies, in teaching, in arms, in 
legislation. But he ever looked back to his 
teacher-life with peculiar satisfaction. Address- 
ing the National Association of School Superin- 
tendents, in 1879, he said, — 

" I feel at home among teachers ; and, I may say, I look 
back with more satisfaction upon my work as a teacher than 



86 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

upon any other work I have done. It gives me a pleasant 
home feeling to sit among you, and revive old memories." 

Iii the Hiram period he was full of ambition 
and strength ; he had plenty of work and plenty 
of leisure; his friends and fellow-workers were 
congenial ; and his joyous nature ran full and free. 
To all who beheld it, his teacher-life must remain 
a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Again let 
the reader substitute his name for Miss Booth's in 
this passage : — 

" As the earlier teachers were called away to other fields 
of duty, their places were supplied by selection from those 
who had been Eclectic students; and thus Miss Booth 
found herself associated with teachers whose culture she 
had guided, and who were attached to her by the strongest 
ties of friendship. I know how apt we are to exaggerate 
the merits of those we love ; but, making due allowance for 
this tendency, as I look back upon the little circle of teachers 
who labored here, under the leadership of our honored and 
venerable friend Mr. Hayden, during the first six years of 
the Eclectic, and upon the younger group, associated 
with me from 1856 until the breaking-out of the war, I 
think I wrong no one of them by saying, that for generous 
friendship and united, earnest work, I have never seen and 
never expect to see their like again. Enough new members 
were added to the corps of teachers from year to year to 
keep alive the freshness of young enthusiasm; and yet 





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GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 87 

enough experience and maturity of judgment were left to 
hold the school in a steady course of prosperity." 



VI. — GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 

In 1861 Mr. Garfield went to the army, and in 
1863 to Congress. His services as a soldier and 
statesman do not lie within the scope of this 
sketch. Bnt Hiram continued his Ohio home 
until he removed to Mentor in 1877. Some phases 
of his later Hiram life must be here described. 

In November, 1858, he married Miss Lucretia 
Rudolph, whose mental gifts, both native and 
acquired, well fitted her for his wife and com- 
panion. She had been a pupil with him, both in 
Chester and in Hiram, as well as a pupil of his in 
Hiram. Now she became both his fellow-student 
and co-worker. His obligations to her in the 
wifely relation he strongly and beautifully recog- 
nized on all fitting occasions. Her great strength 
of character, long before known to private friends, 
was fully, revealed to the world in the long tra- 
gedy that closed at Elberon, Sept. 19, 1881. Mr. 
and Mrs. Garfield's domestic life was eminently 
happy and beautiful. After the war Grandma 
Garfield, now known so pleasantly to the world 
as " the little white-haired mother, ,, was generally 



88 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

a member of the family. They were a happy 
trio, — a fond mother, a dutiful son and husband, 
a faithful daughter and wife. Both General and 
Mrs. Garfield were always conspicuous for private 
and domestic virtues, "filial affection, unbroken 
troth, and parental love." 

At first they did not set up housekeeping, but 
boarded. In the month of April, 1863, the Gen- 
eral — then on a visit home from the army — pur- 
chased for eight hundred and twenty-five dollars 
the only home that they ever owned in Hiram, — 
the small two-story frame house that so many 
friends remember. This house Mrs. Garfield re- 
fitted and enlarged in the fall of 1863, at an 
expense of one thousand dollars. Here they made 
their happy home until, in 1872, the family hav- 
ing outgrown it, he sold it to its present owner 
and occupant. Henceforth the Garfields spent 
more time in Washington ; but whenever in 
Hiram, — as they always were each summer until 
the removal to Mentor in 1877, — they made their 
home at father Rudolph's. Their Hiram life was 
perfectly simple and natural, as became their 
estate, their nature, and their surroundings. Save 
the constantly-used and ever-growing library, 
nothing in or about General Garfield's home stood 



GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 89 

in contrast to the homes of his neighbors. His 
house was a place for "plain living and high 
thinking." If the old walls could speak, what 
thoughts would they not voice, what emotions 
utter, what joyousness describe ! He never kept 
a carriage, and save for two short intervals, — one 
just before and one just after the war, — never a 
horse and buggy. To get to and from the rail- 
road, he depended upon the hack, or some neigh- 
bor's vehicle, or walked. It may be added, that it 
was from the old house that little Trot was buried 
in December, 1863, just as her father reached 
Hiram on his way to Washington from the Army 
of the Cumberland ; and that it was to father 
Rudolph's that the body of little Eddie was 
brought for burial in the autumn of 1876. The 
two children — the eldest and the youngest born 
— sleep side by side in the Hiram graveyard. 

Talking of walking to and from the railroad, let 
me say that more of it was done twenty years ago 
than now. As I write, there comes to me a vision 
of an autumn evening in the year 1858. Mr. 
Garfield, Miss Booth, Henry Newcomb, and the 
writer — all of whom, save the last, have passed 
over, and "joined the majority" — alighted from 
the same train at the " Jeddo " platform. The 



90 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

two teachers had been to Cleveland; and Mr. 
Garfield had brought home with him a copy of 
" The Atlantic Monthly " for the current month. 
Here let me say that no man or woman less than 
forty years old can well appreciate the advent of 
this magazine. Such people found " The Atlan- 
tic " when they began to read. But in 1857 — 
" The Atlantic's " natal year — a great many 
minds were waiting for " something of the kind ; " 
and the magazine came to them. Thus it came to 
Mr. and Mrs. Garfield, Miss Booth, and others in 
the Hiram fellowship. He thought Dr. Holmes 
the strongest of the early contributors, and much 
appreciated, both his prose and his verse. He fol- 
lowed the successive numbers of " The Autocrat " 
with great interest. As the quartet before men- 
tioned walked to Hiram that beautiful autumn 
evening, he read to them the twelfth number of 
this serial. I seem to hear again the intonations 
and to see the gestures with which he read the 
professor's " Prelude : " — 

" I'm the fellah that tole one day 
The tale of the won'erful one-hoss shay." 

This little incident gives an opportunity to say 
that the scope of General Garfield's intellectual 



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garfield's later hiram life. 91 

tastes and likes was singularly wide. He took 
equal though a very different interest in Tooke's 
" History of Prices," and in the " Biglow Papers." 
He grew wise over the grave and weighty page 
of Bacon, and laughed over " Pickwick " until it 
seemed that his own prediction, " I believe Dick- 
ens will kill me yet," would be realized. He 
delighted in the knightly tales of Scott, and in 
both the tragedy and comedy of Shakspeare. He 
was as rich in humor as he was strong in logic. 
Pie abounded in delightful fancies and in pleas- 
ant conceits. The election to the Presidency, in- 
deed, laid its hand heavily upon him, repressing 
somewhat his early spirits ; but in Hiram he was 
full of "jest and youthful jollity," of "quips 
and cranks." At the same time he never lost 
his propriety, or surrendered the dignity of his 
carriage. The over-grave might, indeed, have 
taken offence at his mirth and flow of spirits ; 
but he who could "unbend" with a boy could 
instantly rise to the level of the grave and 
the serious. 

Few men ever saw clear around General Gar- 
field, he was so many-sided. He became the " sage 
of Mentor," — the man to whom the people looked 
for counsel and wisdom ; but he was much more 



92 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

than a sage. He was full of human nature. Mr. 
Lowell read him aright when he said in Exeter 
Hall, London, " He was so human" He could 
ever give the one touch of nature that makes 
the whole world kin. He had read books; he 
" talked like a book ; " but he was not a book. 
Men spoke admiringly of his great attainments; 
but he was never a recluse, never seemed book- 
ish. He gathered the metal from which he forged 
his armor and his weapons from all mines ; but 
they were always forged in his own fires. He 
generally seemed to have abundant leisure. His 
delight in conversation was equalled only by his 
excellence as a converser. He was at home to 
all men, and at home with them. He would 
leave on the mind of the Montana stage- 
driver, on whose box he rode, the impression 
that he was an extraordinary man ; and he met 
the courtly Sir Edward Thornton, on the latter's 
departure for England, with an equal dignity and 
grace. 

Astonishment has often been expressed by those 
familiar with intellectual work, that Represent- 
ative Garfield performed such a great amount of 
work the nine Congresses that he sat in the 
House of Representatives. At the same time, a 



garfield's later hlram life. 93 

» 
fuller appreciation of what he did, which is sure 

to follow the gathering-up of his literary work, 
and the publication of an adequate life, will add 
to this astonishment. No man in this country 
contributed so much that is valuable to the public 
discussion of serious questions, between 1870 and 
1880. This was profoundly felt by the managers 
of the Republican campaign last year. A note 
addressed to the Hon. Edward McPherson, secre- 
tary of the Republican Congressional Committee, 
brought this reply : — 

" Gettysburg, Penn., Oct. 3, 1881. 

" Dear Sir, — I have found the statement of the issues 
[of documents] made by the Republican Congressional Com- 
mittee of 1880. The total number of copies issued by us 
was 12,973,000. Of this the reprint of General Garfield's 
speeches reached the large aggregate of 3,881,000 copies, or 
more than one-fourth of the whole. The same proportion, 
no doubt, applies to the Xational Committee. 

" No candidate ever so powerfully impressed himself 
upon the country as General Garfield ; and he, more truly 
than any one else, elected himself. Usually candidates are 
a burden. He was a help almost to the extent of carrying 
the campaign. This I felt daily as the months rolled on. 
" Respectfully yours, 

" Edw. McPherson. 
" President Hinsdale." 



94 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Here it may be added, that Mr. McPherson's 
committee published fifteen Garfield documents ; 
that one exceeded a circulation of half a million 
copies, and several others approached that number. 

Now, the explanation of General Garfield's 
work, so great and so valuable, lies in these facts, 
— his great abilities, his thorough mental training 
and sound habits of study, his powerful physical 
constitution, his just conception of public life and 
public duty, his noble ambition to fill out that 
conception, and the favorable surroundings of his 
Ohio home. He devoted himself to his proper 
work. His comparative retirement and freedom 
from interruption gave him one of the conditions 
for that work which he needed. 

What is more, his constituency did not greatly 
annoy him with calls for offices or clamor for pat- 
ronage. Much surprise has been expressed that so 
great a man as General Garfield lived in so small 
a place as Hiram. The surprise is ill-founded. It 
is more than doubtful whether he ever could have 
done so much, had he lived in a great social and 
business centre. Macaulay expressed the opinion 
that a great work on political science, like Adam 
Smith's " Wealth of Nations," is more likely to 
come from a humble clergjmian in the Hebrides 



Garfield's later hiram liee. 95 

than from an active member of the British Parlia- 
ment ; and there was equally good cause for look- 
ing to Hiram for a great statesman, rather than to 
New York or Philadelphia. 

General Garfield's readiness on all occasions has 
often been remarked. Probably some have attrib- 
uted this readiness to the inspiration of genius. 
The explanation lies partly in his genius, but much 
more in Ins indefatigable work. He treasured up 
knowledge of all kinds. " You never know," he 
would say, " how soon you will need it." Then he 
forecasted occasions, and got ready to meet them. 
One hot day in July, 1876, he brought to his 
Washington house an old copy of " The Congres- 
sional Globe." Questioned he said, " I have been 
told confidentially that Mr. Lamar is going to 
make a speech in the House on general politics, to 
influence the Presidential canvass. If he does, I 
shall reply to him. Mr. Lamar was a member of 
the House before the war ; and I am going to read 
some of his old speeches, and get into his mind." 
Mr. Lamar made his speech Aug. 2, and Mr. Gar- 
field replied the 4th. Men expressed surprise at 
the fulness and completeness of the reply delivered 
on such short notice. But to one knowing his 
habits of mind, especially to the one who had the 



96 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

aforesaid conversation with him, the whole matter 
was as light as day. His genius was emphatically 
the genius of preparation. How apposite here is 
this paragraph from his address on " College Edu- 
cation : " — 

" Men look with admiring wonder upon a great intellect- 
ual effort, like Webster's reply to Hayne, and seem to think 
that it leaped into life by the inspiration of the moment. 
But if, by some intellectual chemistry, we could resolve that 
masterly speech into its several elements of power, and trace 
each to its source, we should find that every constituent force 
had been elaborated twenty years before, it may be in some 
hour of earnest intellectual labor. Occasion may be the 
bugle-call that summons an army to battle ; but the blast of 
a bugle cannot ever make soldiers, or win victories." 

Mr. Garfield excelled almost all men in compre- 
hensive generalizations ; also in the patient, un- 
tiring labor with which he would hunt down 
special facts. Some loose leaves found the other 
day in an old memorandum-book, probably not 
opened before for a dozen years, happily illus- 
trate this latter point. They will also call atten- 
tion to a little thing long since forgotten. 

Senator Sumner published in " The Atlantic 
Monthly " for December, 1866, an article entitled 
"Clemency and Common Sense." Upon one fea- 



garfield's later hiram life. 97 

ture of this article General Garfield wrote this 
criticism, which appeared in "The New- York 
Evening Post : " — 

" In Senator Sumner's very learned and interesting article 
in the December number of ' The Atlantic Monthly,' he has 
minutely analyzed the Homeric fable of Scylla and Charyb- 
dis, and has located the Sirens near by, and made them a 
party to the dangers of, Scylla. 

" He says, ' For the fable Homer is our highest authority,' 
and he represents the Sirens as playing their part to tempt 
their victims. . . . 'Charybdis was a whirlpool in which 
ships were often sucked to destruction. Scylla was a rock 
on which ships were often dashed to pieces.' ' Ulysses in his 
wanderings encountered these terrors ; but, by prudence and 
the counsels of Circe, he was enabled to steer clear between 
them, although the Sirens strove to lure him onto the rock. ' 

" Again, after quoting from the ' Odyssey ' the descriptions 
of the whirlpool and the rock, the Senator says, ' Near by were 
the Sirens, who strove by their music to draw the navigator 
on to certain doom.' 

"He then represents Ulysses as stuffing the ears of his 
companions with wax to shut out the ravishing melody of 
the Sirens, causing himself to be lashed to the mast like 
another Farragut, and steering clear between Scylla and 
Charybdis, beyond the Sirens, 'Till dying off the distant 
sounds decay.' 

" Now, the island, or rather promontory, of the Sirens is on 
the Italian coast, more than a hundred miles north of Scylla 
and Charybdis. Surrentum is generally believed to have 



98 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

been their home, and is set down in Bonn's ' Classical Atlas ' 
at 40° 38' north latitude, while Scylla is 38° 15'. 

" Homer, who, as the Senator says, ' is our highest author- 
ity' for this fable, does not associate the Sirens with the 
dangers of the narrow passage. 

" They lived in a verdant meadow strewn with the bones 
of victims, who had been lured to the shore by the irre- 
sistible charm of their music. 

" Circe having described their abode, and taught Ulysses 
how "to escape them, says, — 

" ; When their companions shall have sailed beyond them, 
then I cannot tell thee which will afterward be thy way,' 
and then proceeded to point out the dangers of Scylla and 
Charybdis. 

" Let us believe that the honorable Senator's mistake in 
regard to the Sirens arises from the fact that he has never 
been lured by their charms to an intimate acquaintance." 

The loose leaves mentioned above are Garfield's 
original draught of this note. It may not read 
here just as it does in the " The Evening Post." 

Those were grand years in Garfield's life that 
lay between 1865 and 1877. At the first date he 
was well started upon his great legislative career : 
at the second, he had not become so absorbed in 
public affairs as he afterwards became. They 
were years of reading, study, thinking, and com- 
munion with friends and family. He was happy 



GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 99 

in his family, in his friends, and in his work. To 
live by his side those years, to be welcome to his 
house, to walk with him through field and wood, 
to hear him discuss books, men, and questions, 
with him " to outwatch the Bear," — was a privi- 
lege such as the gods of high Olympus never 
granted to their greatest favorites. 

General Garfield retained his Hiram interest 
and affection to the last. This can be shown by 
short notices of his relations to the church, the 
College Board, the students, and the Hiram fel- 
lowship. 

He early became a member of the Hiram church, 
and never removed his proper membership to 
another congregation, — neither to Mentor nor 
Washington. His interest in both the congrega- 
tion and the pulpit continued. In the church he 
frequently participated in the social services. 
The last time that he did so, he spoke feelingly of 
the gloom and chill cast over life by unbelief in 
the central Christian doctrines. A letter just 
received speaks of another of these occasions : " A 
little talk that he gave one Sunday afternoon near 
twilight, in the blessed Hiram church, has come 
into my mind again and again, these last days. 
It was five or six years ago ; and I cannot recall 



100 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

what lie said, except that he quoted these words 
of Christ to his disciples, perhaps for a text : ' It 
is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go 
not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; 
but if I depart, I will send him to you.' ' 

He conscientiously performed his duties as a 
member of the Board of Trustees. No member 
was more useful, or made more sacrifice to be 
present at the meetings. June 7, 1881, in a letter 
to the President of the College, he wrote : " I 
feel a sense of positive loss in not being able 
to attend the commencement at Hiram, but of 
course it is impossible. . . . Express to the Board 
my regret that I am not able to be with them." 
Record should also be made of the fact that he 
always stood with the most liberal in his contribu- 
tions to the treasury. 

So long as Hiram was his home, he gave the 
students occasional lectures ; and, even after he 
moved away, on his flying visits he would visit 
the chapel, if possible, and make a "talk." In 
the spring of 1871 he gave a course of ten lec- 
tures on Social Science. In 1869 and 1870, he 
had made a special study of the census and its 
related subjects, and had attempted to get an 
improved census law enacted. He read widely 



GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 101 

the literature of statistics, English, French, and 
Belgian. His lectures were an outgrowth of 
these studies. Professor I. N. Demmon, then of 
Hiram, now of Michigan University, who heard 
these lectures, thus speaks of them under date of 
Oct. 17, 1881 : — 

" On consulting my diary for that year, I find that the 
first lecture was given on Friday afternoon, May 26. The 
subject was ' The Methods of Thought.' The second, given 
on the following day, attempted a classification of the sci- 
ences. During the next week, at least four more lectures 
were given, as follows : ' Practical Value of Social Science ; ' 
'Preservation and Extension of Life;' 'Society and Gov- 
ernment, their Nature and Origin;' 'Reign of Law.' I 
took rough notes of the lectures, which I have since re- 
gretted that I did not write out and elaborate at the time. 
The lectures were full of suggestive thought and happy 
illustration, and were delivered in the General's engaging 
manner, greatly to the delight and instruction of us all. 
They were given off-hand, apparently from rough notes. A 
rational, and at the same time devout, spirit ran through 
them all." 

But it must not be supposed that these lectures 
flowed spontaneously out of their author's general 
reading upon the subjects discussed : he devoted 
to them much labor and time, — more, probably, 



102 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

than lie ever gave to a case in the Supreme Court. 
All of which he did on account of his interest in 
the subjects themselves, and his desire to aid the 
students and college. 

Soon after President Garfield's election to the 
Senate in the winter of 1879-80, a letter of con- 
gratulation was sent to him in the name of the 
faculty and students. The letter spoke of his 
election, and particularly of the honorable manner 
in which it had been accomplished. Soon came 
back this graceful reply : — 

"Washington, D.C., Jan. 28, 1880. 

"Prof. G. H. Colton, Louis Hoffman, and C. P. Wilson, 
Hiram, Portage Co., Ohio. 

" Gentlemen, — I owe you an apology for so long neglect- 
ing to acknowledge your very kind letter of the 17th inst. 
I have been so constantly engaged since it came, that it has 
been really impossible to answer it sooner. 

" I thank you with all my heart for the kind congratula- 
tions with which the faculty and students of Hiram College 
have honored me. So much of my life was identified with the 
educational work of Hiram, that I could not be true to my- 
self should I ever cease to cherish with the utmost affection, 
not only the memories of the place, but its dearest interests. 

" I concur with you in esteeming more highly than the 
office itself the manner in which the Senatorship was con- 
ferred upon me ; and I may add that I prize still more highly 



Garfield's later hiram life. 103 

the approval of thoughtful, cultivated men, and especially 
those who know me so well as the faculty and students of 
Hiram College. I beg you to express to them my heartfelt 
thanks for their kind remembrance. 

" Very truly yours, 

"J. A. Garfield." 

Of his relations to the community, a word suf- 
fices. He discharged to the full his duties as a 
citizen. His democratic manner and spirit levelled 
all barriers to approach. All his neighbors knew 
that he was approachable and generous ; and all 
had the most unbounded confidence in his probity 
and honor. 

The great day of every year in Hiram is Com- 
mencement. It is a day very like what Com- 
mencement was to the smaller New-England 
colleges before the railroads so mixed up the city 
and the country. It is a day looked forward to 
with great interest by a large number of persons. 
General Garfield always made it a point to attend, 
if consistent. As the time drew near, the ques- 
tion, "Will Mr. Garfield [or, "the General"] be 
there ? " was often asked in the regions round 
about. It is, perhaps, needless to say, that to the 
" old students " (as they are now called) he was 
always the centre of interest. To Hiram he came, 



104 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

June 10, 1880, two days after his nomination at 
Chicago, partly to attend the Commencement, but 
more to be present at the great re-union that is 
held every five years. How different his coming 
from that of 1851 ! Then he came unobserved, 
a student poor and plain : now he comes with 
flags, and bands of music, powerful friends and a 
huzzaing multitude, and a troop of correspondents 
to tell it all to the world. At the close of the 
exercises he made this, his last Commencement 
speech : — 

" It always has given me pleasure to come here, and look 
upon these faces. It has always given me new courage and 
new strength. It has brought back a large share of that 
richness that belongs to those things out of which come the 
joys of life. While I have been sitting here this afternoon, 
watching your faces, and listening to the very interesting 
address just delivered, it occurred to me that the best thing 
you have that all men envy — I mean, all men who have 
reached the meridian of life — is perhaps the thing you 
care for least, and that is your leisure, — the leisure you 
have to think in, and to be let alone ; the leisure you have 
to throw the plummet with your hands, and sound the 
depths, and find what is below ; the leisure you have to walk 
about the towers of yourselves, and find how strong or how 
weak they are, and determine which need building up, and 
how to shape them, that you may be made the final being 



Garfield's later hiram life. 105 

that you are to be. Oh, these hours of building! If the 
Superior Being of the universe would look down upon the 
world, to find the most interesting object, it would be 
the unfinished and unformed character of young men and 
young women. Those behind me have probably, in the 
main, settled such questions. Those who have passed mid- 
dle manhood and middle womanhood are about what they 
will always be, and there is little left of interest or curiosity 
as to their development ; but in your young, unf ormed na- 
tures, no man knows the possibilities that lie treasured up. 
While you are working up those possibilities with that 
splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all classes of 
men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your 
leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your 
wealth, as your means, out of which you can demand all 
possible treasures that God laid down when he formed your 
nature, and unveiled and developed the possibilities of your 
future. This place is too full of memories for me to trust 
myself to speak more, and I will not; but I draw again 
to-day, as I have drawn for a quarter of a century, evidences 
of strength and affection from the people who gather in this 
place, and I thank you for the permission to see you and 
meet you and greet you as I have done to-day." 1 

1 Soon after Garfield's graduation, President Hopkins 
preached a Baccalaureate Sermon on "Leisure," from the text, 
" Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing he lost." 
This sermon, which he either heard or read, was a seed- 
thought in Garfield's mind. He struck the "leisure" chord 
again in his inimitable Chautauqua speech delivered at sun- 
rise, Aug. 9, 1881. 



106 PEESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

The next clay lie presided in the Tabernacle, 
and made his last re-union speech. This has been 
once given in this sketch, and need not be here 
repeated. Feb. 4, 1881, he made his last visit to 
Hiram. He came primarily to attend a funeral ; 
but he met and greeted the faculty and students 
in the chapel, as was his wont. As noted down 
by one of the latter, these were his last public 
words in that place : — 

" To-day is a sort of burial-day in many ways. I have 
often been in Hiram, and have often left it ; but, with the 
exception of when I went to the war, I have never felt that 
I was leaving it in quite so definite a way as I do to-day. It 
was so long a work-shop, so long a home, that all absences 
have been temporary, and involved always a return. I can- 
not speak of all the ties that bind me to this place. There 
are other things buried beneath this snow besides dead 
people. The trees, the rocks, the fences, and the grass are 
all reminders of things connected with my Hiram life. 

"It is a revival of youth to me to be in this place, to see 
its bright young life. I see before me just such a set of 
students as I saw here twenty-four, twenty-six, yes, twenty- 
eight years ago, — just as young, just as bright, just as hope- 
ful of the future. It is pleasing to know that Hiram life 
is ever the same. A few days ago I saw a girl in the full 
bloom of early womanhood, who is the daughter of a 
woman who was my pupil here twenty-four years ago. She 
was the picture of her mother, whom I have never seen 



garfield's later hiram life. 107 

since, but I am told that she has become a gray-haired 
matron. As the daughter stood before me, the likeness of 
what the mother was then, what thoughts and feelings came 
over me of the years that are gone ! There is an idea of 
immortality in this, — life is reproduced in things that 
follow. A fountain of perpetual youth is in this old chapel: 
there are no wrinkles in its walls. It is a very comforting 
thought, that though the ancients sought the fountain of 
perpetual youth, and found it not, it can be found in the 
associations of a j>lace like this. 

" It is pitiful that we often do not appreciate good things 
until they are gone. Emerson has said, l To-day is a king 
in disguise.' He passes among us ; and, if we heed not, he 
leaves us, and we are none the wiser. Get acquainted with 
what there is in to-day ; take what it contains, and appro- 
priate it to yourself. The strong friendships and deep 
impressions that you are forming now will live in time to 
come. The other day a man came to me whom I had known 
here twenty-five years ago, but he was changed : he was fat 
and whiskered and half bald ; and when I took him by the 
hand, and called him by name with ' W. D.' for his initials, 
he cried like a man to be remembered. I believe he is 
richer, fuller, more of a man, for what he gained here at 
Hiram. If I thought the time would ever come when I 
should live the Hiram life out of me, I should hope to die 
just before it came. 

"Never despise the days of Hiram life and childhood. 
The associations that you are now forming, your lessons, 
your thoughts, and your deeds from day to day, are what go 
to make up your life here; and this is the foundation of 



108 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

your after-life. Be wise now ; and, when you live over again 
the life you lived here, may it be such as you could wish ! 

" I cannot see what lies beyond. I may be going on an 
Arctic voyage ; but, be that as it may, I know that years 
ago I builded upon this promontory a cairn, from which, 
wherever my wanderings may lead me, I can draw some 
sustenance for life and strength. May the time never come 
when I cannot find some food for mind and heart on Hiram 
Hill!" 

At the close of his remarks he greeted those 
who were present, one by one. Many of the stu- 
dents were the children of his old scholars, and 
his greetings were often accompanied by pleasant 
reminiscences. As he stepped into the sleigh 
that stood at the door, where years before he had 
watched his " star in the east," he said to one of 
his early friends, " We have come to the parting 
of the ways, but I hope it will not be for long.'' 
These were his last words to her, for they never 
met again. Then he was driven away from Hiram 
forever, over the snow that covered so many other 
things than dead people. How little, indeed, did 
he know of the sea upon whose shore he stood ! 
The inauguration, the struggle for the dignity of 
his office, Mrs. Garfield's illness, the assassin's 
shot, the brave fight for life, his heroic and tender 



GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 109 

death, soon followed in quick succession. These 
things can only be mentioned ; but how fitting the 
phrase of Minister Lowell in Exeter Hall : " In 
the presence of that death-scene, so homely, so 
human, so august in its unostentatious heroism, 
the commonplaces of ordinary eulogy stammer 
with the sudden shame of their own ineptitude." 



Here ends the story. Save in one or two minor 
instances, it has been wholly impersonal, as was 
fit. But, before he lays down the pen that falter- 
ingly has drawn this sketch, surely the writer's 
personality may for one moment come into view. 

I have now discharged, as best I could within 
my space, what seemed a sacred duty, both to the 
dead and to the living. I hope this outline has 
been so drawn, and so filled in with the "little 
history " in which President Garfield always took 
so much interest, as to form a sketch of his Hiram 
life not altogether unworthy of the theme. Gar- 
field the student and teacher rises before us vast 
and mountain-like. If the common student or 
teacher cannot encompass the mountain, he can at 
least grasp the shrubs that root upon its sides. 



110 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

My personal obligations to General Garfield are 
the strongest possible. It was in the winter of 
1853-54 that our acquaintance began. But the 
vision that now rises before my mind begins with 
the autumn of 1856. Then it was, that on his 
return to Hiram, with the honors of Williams 
upon his head, and the light of the future in his 
eye, he sought me out in the sore doubts and 
troubles of my closing boyhood, and drew me 
closer to himself. Then began the friendship 
that grew stronger and closer until his untimely 
fall at the post of duty. In those twenty-five 
years I was permitted to share much of his life, 
his work, his love. I followed him as a son his 
father, though it was with very unequal steps. In 
all the greater labors, and especially in the crises 
of my life, he endowed me with his knowledge 
and his wisdom. The measures of instruction, 
sympathy, and friendship, that he poured into my 
mind and heart, were not, indeed, all that he could 
impart, but they were all that I could receive. 
To testify to his worth and greatness while he 
lived, in evil as well as in good report, was always 
a glad office ; as it is to pay even this poor tribute 
to his memory, now that he is no more. 

Now that he is no more ! Men tell me that he 



garfield's later hiram life. Ill 

is dead. They say he died in the audience-cham- 
ber of the world. The funeral-car that glided 
past me at Pittsburg in the gray mist of the morn- 
ing contained, they said, his coffin. They called 
a hearse behind which I rode, his hearse. They 
termed some words that I uttered at an open 
grave, a benediction at his burial. Are, then, 
God and nature so at strife ? Does nature indeed 
lend such evil dreams? There comes to me a 
passage that pleased him three and twenty years 
ago. Dr. Holmes speaks of the " sweet illusions " 
that mingled with the fancies of his youth, — illu- 
sions which he loved so well that he would not 
outgrow them. 

" The firing of the great guns at the Navy Yard," he says, 
"is easily heard at the place where I was born and lived. 
1 There is a ship-of-war come in,' they used to say when they 
heard them. Of course I supposed that such vessels came 
in unexpectedly, after indefinite years of absence, — sudden- 
ly as falling stones ; and that the great guns roared in their 
astonishment and delight at the sight of the old war-ship 
splitting the bay with her cutwater. Now, the sloop-of-war 
' The Wasp,' Captain Blakely, after gloriously capturing 
' The Reindeer ' and ' The Avon,' had disappeared from the 
face of the ocean, and was supposed to be lost. But there 
was no proof of it; and, of course, for a time hopes were 
entertained that she might be heard from. Long after the 



112 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

last real chance had utterly vanished, I pleased myself with 
the fond illusion that somewhere on the waste of waters she 
was still floating ; and there were years during which I never 
heard the sound of the great guns booming inland from the 
Navy Yard without saying to myself, ' " The Wasp " has 
come ! ' and almost thinking I could see her as she rolled in, 
crumpling the water before her, weather-beaten, barnacled, 
with shattered spars and threadbare canvas, welcomed by 
the shouts and tears of thousands. This was one of those 
dreams that I nursed and never told. Let me make a clean 
breast of it now, and say that, so late as to have outgrown 
childhood, perhaps to have got far on towards manhood, 
when the roar of the cannon has struck suddenly on my 
ears, I have started with a thrill of vague expectation and 
tremulous delight ; and the long-unspoken words have articu- 
lated themselves in the mind's dumb whisper, ' " The Wasp ' 
has come I'" 1 

Let no one call me boyish if I tell a like dream 
that I nurse. It is that my teacher, friend, and 
President is not really dead, but that he has gone 
on some distant journey from which he will return 
richer and wiser than before. Surely some day, 
as I sit musing in the old college, or abstractedly 
pace the floor, there will come without a footfall, 
and then at the door a knock, that shall startle 
me with a thrill of vague expectation and tremu- 
lous delight, and the long-unspoken words shall 

1 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 239. 



garfteld's later hlram life. 113 

articulate themselves in the mind's dumb whisper, 
" Garfield has come ! " 

" I cannot think he wished so soon to die 
With all his senses full of eager heat, 
And rosy years that stood expectant by 
To buckle the winged sandals on their feet. 

" The shape erect is prone : forever stilled 
The winning tongue ; the forehead's high-piled heap, 
A cairn which every science helped to build, 
Unvalued will its golden secrets keep : 
He knows at last if Life or Death be best : 
Wherever he be flown, whatever vest 
The being hath put on which lately here 
So many-friended was, so full of cheer 
To make men feel the Seeker's noble zest, 
We have not lost him all; he is not gone 
To the dumb herd of them that wholly die ; 
The beauty of his better self lives on 
In minds he touched with fire, in many an eye 
He trained to Truth's exact severity : 
He was a Teacher : why be grieved for him 
Whose loving word still stimulates the air ? 
In endless file shall loving scholars come 
The glow of his transmitted touch to share, 
And trace his features with an eye less dim 
Than ours whose sense familiar wont makes numb." 1 

i " Agassiz : " J. R. Lowell. 



114 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 



n. 



ADDRESSES AT HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL 

SERVICE. 

SUNDAY afternoon, Sept. 25, 1881, while the 
remains of President Garfield lay in state in 
Cleveland, a Hirarn College memorial service was 
held in the First Presbyterian Church. The 
church was crowded ; and the exercises were 
marked by deep feeling, as well as great interest 
and solemnity. Isaac Errett of Cincinnati made 
the opening prayer, and President Pendleton of 
Bethany College gave the benediction. The 
regular choir of the church discoursed beautiful 
music. The following are the addresses made, in 
their proper order : — 

L— B. A. HINSDALE, PRESIDENT OF HIRAM 
COLLEGE. 

Brethren in the Hiram Fellowship, — 
There was never but one man who could fitly pre- 
side at a Hiram re-union. And he was the man 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 115 

whom we have gathered, not to honor, but to re- 
member. With what felicity did he always open 
the service ! with what aptness guide all our 
thoughts and feelings ! Can you think of Gar- 
field as presiding at his own obsequies, not know- 
ing that they are his own ? If you can, please to 
consider that I have resigned the chair, and that 
he is present and presiding in our midst. 

James Abram Garfield : born Nov. 19, 1831 ; a 
student at Hiram in August, 1851, at Williams- 
town in 1854; President of the Eclectic Institute 
in 1857; an Ohio Senator in 1859; a soldier in 
1861 ; elected a Representative in Congress in 
1862, and re-elected each two years succeeding 
until 1878 ; chosen United-States Senator in Janu- 
ary, 1880; nominated by the Republican party 
for the Presidency in June of the same year; 
elected to that high office in November following ; 
inaugurated Chief Magistrate of the Republic, 
March 4, 1881 ; shot by the assassin, July 2 ; 
died at Elberon, Sept. 19: these dates mark the 
salient points of a career that, in respect to high 
character, noble achievement, lofty promise not 
yet fulfilled, beautiful romance, generous enthu- 
siasm, pure ambition, and a final euthanasia, has 
no parallel in all the tides of time. 



116 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Were I limited to one phrase in which to 
describe James A. Garfield, I should say, " Great- 
ness of nature." With what wealth of noble 
faculties was he endowed ! Close observation, 
high analytical and generalizing ability, solidity 
of judgment, depth and purity of feeling, strength 
of will, power of rhetorical exposition, artistic 
sense, poetic sentiment, reverence of spirit, and 
noble courage, — these are only a few of his great 
gifts. Were I allowed a second phrase of de- 
scription, I should add, " Richness of culture." 
Fulness of knowledge, breadth of attainment, 
discipline of all the great faculties of the mind, 
ripeness of experience, — these are phrases that 
describe but imperfectly what study and the fric- 
tion of life had done for him. Greatness of nature, 
and richness of culture, together fitly describe his 
life and character. And this is in perfect har- 
mony with his own maxim, "Every character is 
the joint product of nature and nurture." 

One of the most striking features of this noble 
product of nature and nurture was his many- 
sidedness. Tennyson says of the Duke of Well- 
ington, — 

"He stood four-square to all the winds that blew." 



HIE AM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 117 

This is a bold figure, and it admirably expresses 
the poet's thought. But General Garfield had 
many more sides than four. You can hardly take 
up a point of observation where you will not dis- 
cover something in him both interesting and strik- 
ing. He seemed to face in all directions. He 
faced to law and politics, to science and to litera- 
ture, to arms and the camp, to religion and the 
Christian ministry, to the Senate and the forum, 
to the farm and the arts, to the social circle and 
domestic life, and in as many more directions as 
the diamond from its polished facets flashes its 
lustrous beauty. 

But we are not come together to remember the 
late President in all the phases of his great life 
and character. To-day we leave the soldier to 
soldiers, the lawyer to lawyers, the statesman to 
statesmen. Mr. Garfield faced towards Hiram; 
and to us this will always be his most engaging 
side. Here we recall the sound scholar, great 
teacher, discreet administrator, wise counsellor, 
sure guide, faithful friend, and noble man. Under 
circumstances that make the world weep, are we 
gathered to hold a memorial service for him whose 
fourfold connection with our college, as pupil, 
teacher, president, and trustee, has made the 



118 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

humble name of Hiram known all over the 
land. 

Rapid as was General Garfield's march upon 
the nation, still the public, as a whole, were slow in 
finding him out. They never did fully find him 
out until his life was ebbing away to the music 
made by the Atlantic's sobs. But the students of 
Hiram had discovered his greatness long before 
the year 1860. They were, in fact, the original 
discoverers of James A. Garfield. Years ago a 
Hiram student sang at one of our re-unions, — 

" Right proud are we the world should know 
As hero him we long ago 
Found truest helper, friend." 

Young Mr. Garfield first came to Hiram in 
August, 1851. The next school year he became 
one of the teachers, and continued such until 
1854, when he went to college. On his gradua- 
tion in 1856, he returned as teacher, and the next 
year became the Principal. From this time to 
August, 1861, when he left his class-room for the 
camp, he was the head of Hiram. Within these 
years lies the service that we should remember. 
I can only say, in general, that it was fully marked 
by all the great qualities of his later life, — wealth 






HIE AM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 119 

of knowledge, buoyancy of spirits, dignity of 
carriage, wisdom in counsel, kindness and justice, 
faithfulness of friendship. I draw the outline, 
and leave it for you to fill in the picture. 

Of my own obligations to him, first as a pupil, 
next as a co-teacher, then as friend, nay, as a 
brother, I cannot trust myself to speak. Only he 
who chanted the elegy over the slain Saul, and 
Jonathan his son, can voice my grief : " How are 
the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle ! O 
Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places! 
I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: 
very pleasant hast thou been unto me : thy love 
to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 
How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of 
war perished ! " 

One of the very grandest phases of this grand 
man was his great simplicity of character. This 
he retained unsullied to the end. Nothing could 
corrode or taint his native honest fibre. Princi- 
palities and powers, dignities and dominion, were 
nothing to him in comparison with the fellowship 
of his early friends. His love for the old school 
continued to the very end. His last visit was 
made not long before his final departure for 
Washington. He made one of his beautiful 



120 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

speeches in the chapel. He spoke of the memo- 
ries that lay under the snow ; said, never since he 
went to the army had he left Hiram with similar 
feelings ; said he was about to sail out into un- 
known, perhaps Arctic seas, but that he felt, 
that, on the Hiram promontory, he had built a 
cairn from which he could draw supplies through- 
out the voyage. He called for " Ho, Reapers of 
Life's Harvest," joined heartily in the song, shook 
hands with all present, and drove away home- 
ward. The last autograph letter that he wrote 
me, in the midst of the great political tempest 
that burst so soon after his inauguration, con- 
tained these words : — 

" I throw you a line across the storm, to let you know that 
I think, when I have a moment between breaths, of the dear 
old quiet and peace of Hiram and Mentor." 

How he longed for this " dear old quiet and , 
peace " in all storms, was well known to all his 
closer friends ; and how he sighed for it as he lay 
upon his bed of pain in the heats of Washington 
and by the shore of the far-resounding sea, his- 
tory has recorded. 

There is one person living whom to-day we 
must not forget. And who is this? You all 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 121 

anticipate my answer. She is a Hiram student, 
one of our fellowship, the lamented President's 
noble wife. Many of Hiram's two thousand 
daughters have done nobly; but thou, Lucretia, 
excellest them all. Wheresoever his story shall 
go in all the world, there shall also this that 
you have done be told for a memorial of you. In 
behalf of all who are in the Hiram fellowship, 
I wish to thank you for your heroic devotion, un- 
faltering courage, and immortal hope in the sick- 
chamber of your husband. It was not for your- 
self and your children alone that you wrought : 
you wrought for the nation, for the world, and 
for us. We recognize the deep debt of obligation 
that we can never pay. 

But it is all over. Black Care, that perched 
like the night-raven in our homes the evening of 
July 2, sits in them still. April 28, 1865, I stood 
with General Garfield in the pouring rain, on 
Dr. Robison's doorsteps on Superior Street, when 
the hearse of President Lincoln passed by to the 
Public Square. Yesterday I passed the same 
place as I followed Garfield's hearse to the same 
destination. To-day his remains lie where Lin- 
coln's lay. And it is left for us to adjust our- 
selves to a world that contains no living Garfield. 



122 PRESIDENT GAKEIELD AND EDUCATION. 

He has left us his life and his spirit. Storm and 
war and strife are all over, and he has entered 
upon a quiet and a peace that neither Hiram nor 
Mentor knew. He is thrice happy, and doubly 
immortal, — immortal in life and immortal in 
death. 

Let me ask, why was all this permitted ? Why 
was the assassin allowed to strike him down ? 
Why were not the prayers of the people granted ? 
Why did the night-raven never lift his wings, and 
fly away? Why was the Most High deaf? and 
why did the heavens give no sign? What a 
strange providence ! How can it fit into any 
plan of divine wisdom and love? Thus far I 
have scarcely tried to answer these questions, 
though they have pressed upon me many an 
hour. It is a great test of faith in God. But 
Garfield believed in God. He thought that an 
increasing purpose runs through the ages, and 
comprehends the lives of men ; and I think so 
too. Still, hitherto I have been able to do little 
more than say, " Lord, I believe : help thou 
mine unbelief ! " For myself, I must leave the 
problem to the future. History will no doubt 
discover and disclose what passes my power to 
comprehend. 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 123 

I have dwelt upon the dark side of the great 
tragedy. True, there are great elements of good 
in the story. These • I hope will be duly empha- 
sized, for we must not dwell too much under the 
cypress. In Garfield's young days at Hiram, 
when he was full of joyous life, this saying of 
Emerson's was a great favorite with him : " To- 
day is a king in disguise. Strip off his robes, 
and enjoy him while he is here." And I think 
I hear him who presides over us, in spirit, say, 
" Be not so carried away with grief, so paralyzed 
with sorrow, so blind with weeping, that you can- 
not discover the good that is in it all." Still, 
for one, — 

" I falter where I firmly trod, 

And falling with my weight of cares 
Upon the great world's altar-stairs 
That slope through darkness up to God, 

" I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, 
And gather dust and chaff, and call 
To what I feel is Lord of all, 
And faintly trust the larger hope." 



124 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

II.— J. H. RHODES, ESQ., OF CLEVELAND. 

To thousands of men and women the words 
" Garfield at Hiram " bring swift and happy 
visions of the golden age the world over, when 
memory is not busy with the dead past, but life 
is eager, joyous, standing on tiptoe to catch each 
new, bright morning. Then surely it was true, as 
he often said, " Each day is a king in dis- 
guise." 

It always seems to me now that from boyhood 
he was almost conscious of his high destiny in 
life. He was born to lead and command. He 
captured all hearts as naturally as he breathed. 
He could not help winning them if he would. 

It is not now the time for critical analysis or 
historic preciseness. We see him only through 
the mist of tears. We cry out in our despair, 
like 

" An infant crying in the night, 
An infant crying for the light, 
And with no language but a cry." 

But generations hence his memory and his life, 
hallowed by the lapse of years, and looked at 
through a long line of succeeding events, like 
some grand mountain-peak viewed from afar, will 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 125 

not be less grand,- will rise into the heavens with 
equal glory as now. 

To many who are here to-day, visions come 
again of Garfield in the class-room or the chapel 
at Hiram. They see a fair-faced, blue-eyed 
young man, in the robust vigor of early man- 
hood, overflowing with animal spirits, and breezy, 
cheerful good-nature, standing before a class, and 
irradiating the room with his grand enthusiasms 
for knowledge and ideas which made each pupil 
feel as if he were in an atmosphere highly electri- 
fied, out of which he passed feeling that life had 
new meanings to him, and longing for the return 
of the next lesson. The crayon often became a 
magic wand with which new worlds were dis- 
closed to the young explorer in search of new 
continents. 

" Observe all things," and " Question all men," 
were maxims that he daily illustrated. No man 
was so humble, he often remarked, but something 
new can be learned by talking with him. With 
all men he was, therefore, social. If he did not 
learn any thing from another, young Garfield had 
already learned that ideas can only be clearly 
held when they can be clearly clothed in words ; 
and, as long as he could find a good listener, he 



126 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

delighted to pour forth his own thoughts, thus 
crystallizing ideas and opinions already formed. 
Many a man wondered at the wealth of conver- 
sation with which he was flooded. Many a small 
audience thought it strange he should speak as 
abundantly and as eloquently to them as if there 
were thousands to be moved. All men were foils 
for his own swift blades, and so he grew daily in 
strength and breadth. 

He died young, but he was born at the right 
time. His young manhood began with the great 
stir in modern thought which had already revo- 
lutionized the world. The age of invention and 
discovery had just begun to usher into our mod- 
ern life the triumphs of electricity and steam. 
The ferment of scientific research had opened up 
a thousand new fields of inquiry. The great con- 
flict between old decays and new creations in the 
world of politics was at hand. Literature had 
just had a new birth, and the modern period of 
books and newspapers had been inaugurated. I 
can remember how, in the years 1855-1860, the 
very air seemed surcharged with the new life that 
already threatened storms and hurricanes. I 
never heard him wish that he had been born in 
another age. He did not sigh that his lot had 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 127 

not been cast amid the stirring scenes of ancient 
Rome or modern Europe. He was born in 
America, and for America ; and he lived long 
enough to see the sun of the modern life and 
thought full-orbed and high advanced in the day. 
He went away from Hiram at twenty-three to 
Williamstown, to return in the fall of 1856 with 
the baptism of fire from that new heaven on his 
heart and head. For two years after his gradua- 
tion at Williams, we roomed together at Hiram. 
The old office in " the Orchard " is more hallowed 
to me by that two years of companionship than 
any other temple made by human hands. It was 
both an education and an inspiration to hear him 
at this period. 

It was after his return from Williams College 
that he began to preach. Preaching was a vent 
for the overflow of his energies and activity. In 
preaching he had a greater range of thought than 
in the schoolroom. The effect upon him of two 
years at the feet of that great teacher, Mark 
Hopkins, was very marked. His thought ranged 
through wider circles. Whilst the dogmas of the 
church at Williamstown did not seem to have 
attached themselves strongly, the philosophic and 
metaphysical methods of President Hopkins be- v 



128 rRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

came a part of his own methods. The result of 
this was, that his preaching had a new charm for 
the people who heard him. 

It was during the years that followed his return 
from Williamstown that he found so much inspira- 
tion and strength from companionship with that 
remarkable woman, Almeda A. Booth, whose in- 
tellectual grasp, and range of thought, were only 
second in Hiram to his own. He owed much to 
her; and he has made public acknowledgment in 
a beautiful tribute to that woman, whom he com- 
pared to Margaret Fuller. 

Whilst teaching at Hiram, and preaching in va- 
rious places in Northern Ohio, his mind had turned 
to the law as a life profession ; and among the 
legacies I have of this period are synopses made 
by us of the first two volumes of Bouvier's " Insti- 
tutes." The law in its great principles, its broad 
generalizations, its sacred regard for life and prop- 
erty, its conservative influence and power in main- 
taining order and peace in society, had a great 
charm for his mind; and I distinctly remember 
that he would synopsize the " Institutes " so thor- 
oughly as to cover every doctrine laid down. In 
subsequent years he achieved distinction in the 
law. But politics, in the higher and almost for- 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 129 

gotten meaning of the word, had become a subject 
of great interest to him. The great struggle in 
the land, which ended in the downfall of Ameri- 
can slavery, had already begun. He was intensely 
absorbed in this great controversy, and soon en- 
tered as State Senator upon that public career 
with which the world is so familiar. Into this he 
poured his energies, as he had formerly into 
teaching and preaching. Here, too, in Hiram 
began his devotion to the little woman whose 
name is revered in every home in the civilized 
world. Their acquaintance began a few years 
earlier at Chester. Writing to me in 1871, in the 
midst of his public life, and nearly thirteen years 
after his marriage, he said, " There is not a day 
when I do not inly fear such completeness will 
not be allowed to last long on this earth." Verily, 
she was "the rainbow on his storm of life, the 
anchor on its sea." His mind was imaginative, 
and his temper poetical. The fresh beauties of 
u In Memoriam" were his delight; and thousands 
of times did I hear him recite, in those early days, 
the passage beginning, — 

" The tide flows down, the wave again 
Is vocal in its wooded walls : 
My deeper sorrow also falls, 
And I can speak a little then." 



130 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

The Cuyahoga River, above the Rapids, will 
forever be associated with him in my mind : there 
once we stopped our carriage on the old bridge, 
and looked up the stream, and saw in the tall 
trees on either side what Tennyson means by 
"wooded walls." 

It is hard to find any reconciliation to the fact 
that he is dead, and that his bodily form will be 
visible on earth no more. It may be that his out- 
ward frame will be resolved again to dust, and 
become, in the long processes of Nature, flowers 
and fruit, cloud or frost ; but I never can conceive 
of him as dead. I do not believe he is dead. 
Death has no definition or limitations which can 
include so great a soul. Immortality was no myth 
with him. His voice, I think, is still heard to-day, 
in this beautiful poem, " After Death in Arabia," 
by Edwin Arnold, which, with a slight paraphrase, 
I will read : — 

" He who died at Elberon sends 
This to comfort all his friends. 

" Faithful friends ! It lies, I know, 
Pale and white and cold as snow ; 
And ye say, ' Our Garfield's dead ! ' 
Weeping at the feet and head, 






HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 131 

I can see your falling tears, 
I can hear your sighs and prayers ; 
Yet I smile, and whisper this, — 
' / am not the thing you kiss ; 
Cease your tears, and let it lie ; 
It was mine, it is not I.' 

" Sweet friends ! what the women lave, 
For its last bed of the grave, 
Is but a hut which I am quitting, 
Is a garment no more fitting, 
Is a cage from which, at last, 
Like a hawk my soul hath passed. 
Love the inmate, not the room, — 
The wearer, not the garb, — the plume 
Of the falcon, not the bars 
Which kept him from those splendid stars. 

" Loving friends ! Be wise and dry 
Straightway every weeping eye, — 
What ye lift upon the bier 
Is not worth a wistful tear. 
'Tis an empty sea-shell, — one 
Out of which the pearl has gone ; 
The shell is broken, — it lies there ; 
The pearl, the all, the soul, is here. 
'Tis an earthen jar, whose lid 
Allah sealed, the while it hid 
That treasure of his treasury, 
A mind that loved him ; let it lie I 



132 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Let the shard be earth's once more, 
Since the gold shines in his store. 

" Allah glorious ! Allah good ! 
Now thy world is understood ; 
Now the long, long wonder ends ; 
Yet ye weep, my erring friends, 
While the man .whom ye call dead, 
In unspoken bliss, instead, 
Lives and loves you ; lost, 'tis true, 
By such light as shines for you ; 
But in the light ye cannot see 
Of unfulfilled felicity, — 
In enlarging paradise, 
Lives a life that never dies. 

" Farewell, friends ! Yet not farewell ; 
Where I am, ye, too, shall dwell. 
I am gone before your face, 
A moment's time, a little space. 
When ye come where I have stepped 
Ye will wonder why ye wept ; 
Ye will know, by wise love taught, 
That here is all, and there is naught. 
Weep awhile, if ye are fain, — 
Sunshine still must follow rain ; 
Only not at death, — for death, 
Now I know, is that first breath 
Which our souls draw when we enter 
Life, which is of all life centre. 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 133 

" Be ye certain all seems love, 
Viewed from Allah's throne above ; 
Be ye stout of heart, and come 
Bravely onward to your home 1 
La Allah ilia Allah! yea! 
Thou love divine ! Thou love alway I 

" He that died at Elberon gave 
This to those who made his grave." 

III. — HON. C. B. LOCKWOOD OF CLEVELAND. 

I have always thought that General Garfield 
was greater than any of his works, wiser than any 
of his words ; and I think this is the general 
impression of all those who knew him well. 

I remember, in his early manhood, his coming 
into the pulpit one morning, and relating this cir- 
cumstance : He said that as he walked to church 
he met a boy by the way, who called him, and 
said, " Mr. Garfield, explain to me why this thistle- 
seed is covered with down. You see that it is 
just fitted to be blown by the* winds of heaven, to 
be scattered broadly over the earth, and to do 
great harm. Why is it so?" He commenced 
with that narration a sermon that I shall never 
forget ; and I will relate its salient points, because 
I believe they were the groundwork of all that 



134 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

he was in life. General Garfield, more than any 
other man that I ever knew, believed in God. 
His belief was most implicit. Not always in the 
God of tradition, but in the God who is the Father 
of this race of ours. His reply to the young man 
was, that the earth was cursed for our sake ; and 
his only explanation was, that this was a part of 
the curse. He said the fall made it absolutely 
necessary, if we would be any thing in the world, 
that we should be men of business. I remember, 
and I shall never forget, the wonderful picture he 
drew of the providence of God in the world. He 
said, " The time will come when this race of ours 
shall be relieved from the burdens that now seem 
to bear it downward ; and that time will come just 
as soon as we are fitted for it. The great Father 
waits and longs to give us leisure ; but in his great 
love for us, and in his great wisdom, he is com- 
pelled to hold us to this work — to this drudgery 
— day by day. This is because in his love he is 
determined to make the most of us." He said, 
further, that in his view the knowledge and use of 
the great powers of nature were only withheld 
from us because it was unsafe to put them in our 
hands. " Ah ! " he said, " controlled by passion, 
see how unsafe it would be." But he said further, 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 135 

" Watch it, if you will. The progress of civiliza- 
tion and Christianity, the labor-saving machines 
that are being invented, shall go on step by step. 
Measured by our ability to use the new powers, 
the revelation of them shall come to us. Oh ! " 
he said, "I look forward to the time when the 
promised millennium shall come to us ; and it 
seems to me tins is the direction in which it is to 
come. It is to follow in the wake of civilization ; 
and so fast as we are prepared and fitted to take 
these powers, and use them for the glory of God 
and men, they will be given to us." I have often 
said to myself, as this wonderful knowledge was 
coming to us, the knowledge of these inventions 
and labor-saving machines that has come in the 
past few years, "Is it a measure of our growth 
in purity?" If the theory that he then an- 
nounced, nearly twenty-five years ago, be true, 
then surely it must be evidence of some growth 
toward safety, at least, to have these things within 
our power. General Garfield recognized in all the 
movements of earth this Father, God. He felt 
that this nation — and this accounts for his won- 
derful love for it, and his willingness to make 
great sacrifices for it — was a nation through 
which was to be organized into law and into insti- 



136 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

tutions the will of that Father, — the divine prin- 
ciples which were to make for the happiness of our 
race in the future. It is only a few days since I 
heard him discoursing on this subject; and he said 
this about it : " The time is very near at hand 
when this nation shall be the power in all the 
world that shall say, ' No more war ; ' when its 
voice will be heard in favor of peace, and when 
no civilized government in all this world will dare 
to provoke a war against the wishes, the advice, 
and the counsel of this great land of ours." He 
looked forward, and he thought he saw in its 
movements that it was to be the instrumentality 
of great good in the world : and when he left the 
pulpit, when he went into the field, wherever he 
went, he felt that he was doing this great work, — 
that he was an instrument in the hands of that 
God, who, by some means, communicated still with 
all those who sought to do his will. He struggled 
to open the avenues, that that influence might 
come in, and make him a manly, powerful man, 
that he might be of use to his time. He said to 
me the night after the election, nearly at the break 
of day, 4 * This has been to me a strange scene. 
I have passed through it, with the excitement of 
all the people and of all my friends ; and I have 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 137 

lain down upon my pillow at night without an 
anxiety. I could not have believed it a few years 
since, but I have passed through it all without an 
anxious thought." 

I said, " General, that illustrates your faith in 
God." — "Ah ! " he said, " I was sure that the best 
would be true, and, if the highest was to be sub- 
served, success would be upon our side ; if not, 
upon the other : and I have been literally without 
anxiety." 

Oh ! my dear friends, if there is one thought 
that I would leave with you it is this one ; and I 
think his view of life would include all that we 
mourn to-day. I think, if his voice could be 
heard, he would say to us, " Be not anxious. God 
reigns. He is infinite in his wisdom and his love." 
And he would thank God for his power and his 
willingness to take control of and so manage the 
great affairs of this nation and of the race that 
the highest good should be accomplished. I think 
that this is the secret of the great life of General 
Garfield, — that which brought him a peace amid 
all the struggles of life, that flowed like a river. 



138 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

IV.— PROFESSOR C. D. WILBUR, WILBUR, NEB. 

I am mindful that my time is necessarily short, 
and have only one idea to present in behalf of 
our lamented friend. It is this: that, in all the 
story of my long intercourse and friendship with 
him, there was one principle at the foundation of 
his movements, and that was his love of duty. I 
noticed, that, in the references made to him by 
those who belong to the Hiram alumni, his labors 
after he came to Hiram from Williams College 
were eloquently mentioned. But let me tell you 
all, that there was a time when he was somewhat 
tempted not to come back to Hiram; and the 
temptation came to him in the shape of an offer 
of a twenty-five-hundred-dollar salary to go and 
teach school somewhere else. I remember how 
he discussed that with himself; he and I being in 
the same room, No. 12, Old South College. He 
said, " They want me back at Hiram : they cannot 
pay me much, but I ought to go there." He fol- 
lowed the word ought; and thither he bent his 
willing footsteps, and did all that work. It was 
simply his love of duty ; and, wherever you find 
him, you find him acting up to that standard. 

In it will be found that courage which made 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 139 

him do or dare. We were both co-workers and 
teachers in Hiram more than twenty-five years 
ago ; and this was his thought then : " I can," said 
he, " smell the coming battle afar off. There is a 
great amount of work to do in this world, and I 
must get ready for it." How this came to him, 
no matter. It was probably through the wonder- 
ful impressiveness that separated him from all 
the social world around. " And where shall I go 
to get ready ? " To use his own expression, " I 
want to go where I can get the irons forged for 
the conflict ; and where shall I go ? " So we made 
a careful survey of all the colleges in the land. 
We wrote letters to all the presidents of Eastern 
colleges. " I turn my face toward the East," he 
said, " because there is the accumulation of vast 
libraries, science, history, veteran professors who 
have grown gray in teaching ; and I would go and 
counsel with them." There came a letter from 
that wonderful man, that sage, teacher, and coun- 
sellor, Mark Hopkins; and the statement in the 
letter, " If you come to us, we will do you all the 
good we can," led him there ; and he always re- 
garded it as the wisest step in his intellectual life, 
that he did so. He preceded me there by three 
months, and prepared a room, and got every thing 



140 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ready. Having wrought together in Hiram, we 
worked together, studied together, and roomed 
together, in old Williams. 

He very soon cleared the amphitheatre, laid out 
his work, and declared his purposes. " Here is 
this vast library of so many thousand volumes : I 
must know what it contains. Here is this realm 
of study in history and science : I must go 
through this, — I must know about it." I want 
to say to you that he did not seem to have one 
leisure hour there. It was work, work, work, 
early and late ; and one condition of his great 
success was his great physical endurance to go 
through it all. I want to say to you, that at 
Hiram every one seemed to love one another, 
that it was a school of brotherly love. I have 
walked in it all the days since I was there, 
although my lot has been cast far beyond. But 
when he went to Williams College he found an 
atmosphere essentially different. If he stood or 
fell, he would stand or fall on his own merits. 
There was no favoritism. When we from Ohio 
went there, we went from the West, — the wilder- 
ness of the West, although it was Ohio. It was 
almost a barbarous West. 

We found that we were in a focus of not un- 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 141 

friendly, but unrelenting, criticism. If we could 
not stand the test, we could not pass. So Gar- 
field had to meet this test ; and let me say that in 
six months, although the criticism was formidable, 
he had broken down all the college walls so com- 
pletely, that, though every class seemed to be 
bound by its traditions and its peculiar style of 
selfishness, all seemed to be laid low, and he was 
one with all the college, and the hero of all. 
From this you may know the style of the man 
and his heart: speaking kind words, doing all 
those things that were just right, remembering 
the Golden Rule, and in every intellectual contest 
coming off the victor; and this he did by the 
hardest study. He never chose or sought for a 
college honor in his life : they all came to him 
from his fellows without his solicitation. I have 
watched his career from that day until this, and I 
know that never did he seek an honor, or an 
office, in his life; and yet, when they came to 
him, he wrought so faithfully and so well, that he 
dignified and honored the place he occupied. 
And as the days go on, in the very light of this 
great fact we shall require of the occupant of the 
great office of President of the United States, 
hereafter,' higher qualifications than we have ever 



142 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

demanded before, just because this worthy man 
has occupied and honored it, and made it sacred 
by his presence. 

Our college life was of this sort. It was con- 
tinual work. Garfield used to say, "I must so 
comprehend all these studies that I can analyze 
them at night, and put them in shape." And so 
he did. While he gathered in those rich harvests 
from those grand old men who were teachers, 
every day or every night before midnight saw the 
postings of them, which you will find among his 
papers now. He put them in that finished shape, 
so that any hour he could bring them to his hand, 
and use them. He used to say to me that he 
wrote down these thoughts at the time so that 
they would be complete; for, he said, "There 
come to every one at times expressions that he 
will forget, and never have, unless they are treas- 
ured at the time." So he acted, so he wrought, 
and so he managed to accumulate those vast pos- 
sessions that are the wonderment and the marvel 
of his friends to-day. 

I will close by detailing an incident of our inte- 
rior room-life. Every thing was in perfect order ; 
and when the sunset came, there came with it the 
oft-repeated, never-forgotten circumstance. It was 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 143 

an hour and a moment that was deemed by him 
sacred to his mother. It seemed to be in accord- 
ance with a promise : " Whenever the sun is set- 
ting, read in the Bible, for I will read with you 
then." That was his mother's word to him, and 
he never forgot it. No matter what the press was, 
he always had time for that. We all know, that, 
when he went up Greylock, he drew forth the 
Testament in the sunset upon the mountain, be- 
fore his companions, and said, " Such is my habit." 
But down in the old room at the college it was an 
every-evening occurrence. 

Sometimes we would post the books ; that is to 
say, repeat to one another passages, not of Scrip- 
ture, but of philosophy or of poetry, — Shake- 
speare or any other author, according to our 
liking. Sometimes hours were delightfully passed 
in that way. It was discipline, at the same time. 
His memory was prodigious, — far beyond mine. 
I had hardly thought of it until one day last fall, 
when I was visiting him at his own home, he said 
to me, " Can you repeat to me that little poem 
that was the epitome of life ? It was done up, 
perhaps, in five stanzas ; but the roll of it, the 
style of it, the measure of it, has kept with me all 
the days since." It was a short view of life. He 



144 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

had some such view as Lincoln had when he would 
insist on the reading of that poem, " Oh ! why 
should the spirit of mortal be proud?" But this 
poem was more condensed, more to the point, more 
practical, as Garfield himself was. So I tried to 
remember and repeat it to him. It fits so well 
here, seeing that now he lies yonder, that I will 
venture to give it, and, with it, close. It is by 
Barry Cornwall : — 

" Day dawned. Within a curtained room, 
Filled to faintness with perfume, 
A lady lay at point of doom. 

Day closed. A child had seen the light ; 
But for the lady, fair and bright, 
She rested in undreaming night. 

Spring rose. The lady's grave was green ; 
And near it oftentimes was seen 
A gentle boy, of thoughtful mien. 

Years fled. He wore a manly face, 
And struggled in the world's rough race, 
And gained at last a lofty place. 

And then he died. Behold before ye 
Humanity's poor sum and story, — 
Life, death, and all that is of glory." 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 145 

V.— J. W. ROBBINS OF OMAHA, NEB. 

At the Chicago Convention a motion was made 
one clay that three members should be expelled 
from their seats. It was a tumultuous body, sur- 
rounded, in the high galleries encircling the vast 
room, by ten thousand people. The delegates had 
sat there until worn out. It was, at that moment, 
a gathering which seemed to be ruled more by pas- 
sion than by reason. At any rate, this extraordi- 
nary resolution winch had been read was about 
to be passed with a storm of approval. At that 
moment a form, familiar to so many here, rose 
upon a chair ; and I never can forget the first 
words that he spoke. I wish that I could repeat 
them as he did. It was only necessary for him to 
appear before that Convention, to attract, in the 
midst of the greatest tumult, universal attention. 
He said, " Gentlemen, I fear that we are about to 
commit a great error." A great hush fell upon 
that body of men, and they commenced to think. 
He talked there perhaps ten minutes. He talked 
long enough for them to have time to think, and 
to weigh the words of wisdom that he spoke ; and, 
when he sat down, the purpose and the temper of 
that great body of seven hundred delegates were 



146 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

changed as I never saw a change wrought before 
or since. It was to General Garfield, owing to 
the peculiar circumstances which it would not be 
proper for me to mention here, the greatest per- 
sonal triumph, I believe, that ever came to him in 
all his life. At that moment, when the congratu- 
lations of some of the most eminent men of the 
nation were being showered upon him, I hap- 
pened to pass along where he was; and not 
thinking that my congratulations would be aught 
to him, but filled as I was at that moment with 
pride and with such emotions at the grand spec- 
tacle that I had seen, I reached out my hand to 
him. He took it, and with his other pulled me 
clear down to him, put his lips to my ear, and 
whispered this : " How many Hiram boys do you 
think there are in the gallery?" That needs no 
comment. In that moment of supreme exulta- 
tion, in that moment when he had won, as I 
have said, the grandest personal triumph that 
ever came to him, his first thought was to know 
whether, in all that vast gathering, there were 
any, and, if so, how many, of the Hiram circle, 
to feel pride in his achievement, and to share with 
him the victory. 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 147 

VI.— HON. A. H. PETTIBONE OF GREENVILLE, 

TENN. 

Standing to-day before an audience of Hiram 
students, with all the sad associations and thrill- 
ing memories that come up to me, I am reminded 
impressively of the past. I come from the battle- 
field of Chickamauga, where, in the last few days, 
we have had a re-union of our Garfield's old com- 
rades of the Army of the Cumberland; and, when 
we heard that finally his spirit had winged its 
everlasting flight, we turned what we intended 
to be a season of rejoicing and festivity into a 
solemn requiem occasion. Speaking to you with 
those associations at Chickamauga fresh upon me, 
I can but think of the sweet lines of "Miles 
O'Reilly : " — 

" There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours, — 
Fetters of friendship, and ties of flowers, 

And true-lover's knots, I ween : 
The girl and the boy are bound by a kiss ; 
But there's never a tie, old friend, like this : — 
' We have drunk from the same canteen.' " 

And in that spirit, coming to this stand on this 
occasion, and in the presence of all these Hiram 
students, — recollecting the old associations that 



148 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

used to bind us in the early days, — I feel that we 
have all of us "drunk from the same can- 
teen." 

But it is not for me to occupy time in reminis- 
cence. There are others here better prepared 
and better fitted to do that than I am. I come 
here for another purpose. I have been wont 
to be belligerent in life, and for sixteen years 
I have differed most fearfully and bitterly from 
the men whom we used to meet in gray along 
the Tennessee ; but only the other day, under 
the shadow of old Lookout, while the plain of 
Chickamauga lay before us, and the old heights 
of Missionary Ridge frowned down upon us, I 
saw a scene that I would that all of you could 
see. I must preface my account of it by saying 
that the last time I ever took our old friend 
by the hand was just a week before the assas- 
sin fired the fatal pistol. I was going home ; and 
he said to me in his peculiar way, giving me not 
his hand, but both hands, " Good-by. Tell all 
the boys they must meet me at Chattanooga, at 
the re-union of the Army of the Cumberland." 
And, when I told him that the ex-Confederates 
were going to meet us and to greet us, it seemed 
to put new animation into his face, and new fire 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 149 

into his eye, and he said, " Oh, won't we have a 
jolly time ! " It was not to be ; but the Confed- 
erate soldiers met us there. For some years I 
have felt down yonder as if every man's hand 
was against me : but I know now that a touch 
of real, genuine feeling makes all the world akin ; 
and I say to this audience in Cleveland, that no- 
where in the world, and among no class of people, 
is James A. Garfield more mourned and honored 
and loved than among the stalwart followers of 
Stonewall Jackson and Lee and Cheatham, — the 
nameless, unnumbered host who are now stretch- 
ing out their hands to us from all the land be- 
tween us and the Gulf. I saw old Frank Cheat- 
ham, who fought him at Chickamauga, sitting 
upon the stand ; and again and again the tears 
unbidden would start from his eyes while the 
minute-guns were firing, reminding us that Gar- 
field was no more. I speak, then, for that people. 
All Tennessee is in mourning. The good women 
and the good men of the South, the poor men 
and rich men, are mourning to-day, literally min- 
gling their tears with ours. For long weeks, day 
after day, they would come to my home at Green- 
ville, early in the morning and late in the evening, 
and ask me, "Major, how is our President?" 



150 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

From the colored people and the mountaineers, 
from the glorious old boys in gray, and from 
those I love still better, — the Union soldiers of 
Tennessee, — there came that question ; and I 
noticed always an accent was laid upon the pro- 
noun our, — " How is our President ? " 

I cannot take longer time. I shall bear back 
to that people your feeling. I only come to give 
you their greeting. 

VII. — H. C. WHITE, ESQ., OF CLEVELAND. 

The composite pillar of a great life stands 
broken. The blow of the inhuman iconoclast has 
fallen. But the ruined shaft still reaches to the 
heavens, and for its capital bears the martyr's 
thorny crown. 

We are here to-day with aching hearts, but 
tender hands, to garland with blooming memories 
the pedestal of this masterpiece. We are here to 
open 

" That book of memory 
Which is to grieving hearts like the sweet shower 
To the parched meadow or the dying tree ; 
Which fills with elegy the craving mouth 
Of sorrow, slakes with song the piteous drought, 
And leaves us calm, but weeping silently." 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 151 

The lessons of the life here closed, like its own 
history, are easily clustered in chapters. These 
chapters unfold in harmonious development, and 
are merged in logical gradations. Yet there is a 
marked completeness in each chapter. His life, 
thus stratified, illustrates the unyielding grasp of 
purpose which runs through its entire plan and 
tenor. Holding on to this single clew, running 
through all the labyrinth of circumstances, he 
marched with steady step through all the wilder- 
ing mazes of life. It is given us here to-day to 
open a chapter of this history, completed now a 
quarter of a century. 

James A. Garfield never ceased to be a teacher, 
because he never ceased to be a learner. Many 
of us here knew him when he wielded the upbuild- 
ing forces of education with the arm of a Titan 
and the hand of a master. A peculiar tone was 
given to his career as teacher by the fact that 
during the whole of it he was at once teacher and 
learner. Scattering light with wonderful efful- 
gence, his light was clear and far-reaching, be- 
cause he was simultaneously filling and trimming 
his own lamp of knowledge. Thus, in God's 
economy, he was enabled to bless us out of that 
inheritance of poverty which was his. The blend- 



152 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ing of these forces aided his native endowment 
of mind and heart in the production of those 
grand qualities which he possessed in such full 
measure as a teacher : — 

First, In that all-compassing love and sym- 
pathy. 

Secondly, In that exhaustless enthusiasm which 
sent the rippling and unseen waves of inspiration 
into the dullest and deadest soul. 

Not entirely to the progress of this self-develop- 
ment must we attribute his great power as an 
intellectual and moral builder. Such power was 
inborn and native to him. He won many, because 
he loved much. By the sheer force of the spirit 
he breathed, he lifted all who touched the circle 
of his influence to a higher, purer life. Thus 
the best edifying force with which he wrought 
was his own noble self. His whole life was a 
constantly increasing offering-up of himself. He 
began the sacrifice, in no small measure, while he 
was a teacher. His best text-book was his own 
great heart, mind, and life. Broadly and deeply 
learned, he venerated classic learning, and bowed 
to its authority. In the choice of methods, he 
gave it its due office as a disciplining force. More 
than that, in the alembic of his mind, in the very 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 153 

process of mental assimilation, the dead tongue 
and the dead past took on the glow and form of 
living beauty. But, after all, the value and cur- 
rency of this coinage came largely from the mould 
and impress of his mind and heart, rather than 
from the intrinsic preciousness of the native metal. 
He never wore the perfunctory mental habit of 
the professor. He was not merely equipped with 
the intellectual weapons of the scholastic training- 
master, to be thrown down at the end of the hour 
of drill. He never lost an opportunity to mould 
moral impressions. Better than the iron of the 
Latin thought and tongue he taught so skilfully, 
was the love that he poured out with it. Better 
than the philosophy of the subtle Greek, was the 
grace of his life. Better than the great systems 
of science that he opened, was the sincerity of 
character irradiating his every-day life. Better 
than his expositions of mathematics, was his ex- 
ample of manliness. 

Another source of his power lay in his constant 
and unwearied lifting into view of great life pur- 
poses. How, by wisest precept and loftiest ex- 
ample, he bent up the angle of our aims to high 
and worthy objects! These aims were not the- 
oretical and unattainable : their binding, guiding 



154 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

force lay in their practicability. Upon these grand 
harmonies which burst upon our enraptured ears 
in the olden time, his whole life was tuned. They 
were not mere erratic ideals, wandering darkly in 
his heavens : they were the fixed stars to which 
his moral vision ever turned, on whatever stormy 
sea he rode. 

I have found these grand tenets of his life crys- 
tallized in forms of beauty by the poetic soul of 
another, now dead. Let me read them. This 
was his summary : these are the rules he always 
accepted : — 

" First, labor. Nothing can be had for nothing. What- 
ever a man achieves, he must pay for; and no favor of 
fortune can absolve him from his duty. 

" Secondly, patience and forbearance, which are simply 
dependent on the slow justice of time. 

" Thirdly, and most important, faith. Unless a man 
believes in something far higher than himself, something 
infinitely purer and grander than he can ever become, — 
unless he has an instinct of an order beyond his dreams, of 
laws beyond his comprehension, of beauty, goodness, and 
justice beside which his own ideals are dark, — he will fail 
in every loftier form of ambition, and ought to fail." 

As a teacher, he possessed in wonderful degree 
another excellence : upon whomsoever he laid 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 155 

hold, he never let go. The seeds of truth, once 
implanted by his hand, he watched to see germi- 
nate, grow, and yield fruit. His manner of deal- 
ing with immortal elements rendered, in his view, 
his work immortal. Hence those who had re- 
ceived the impress of his moulding hand, he bore 
with him in the casket of his memory, enshrined 
in his heart, up the toilsome steeps of his glorious 
career; and, while standing upon "the perilous 
heights," he still bore the obscurest to the end. 

Thus transient pupilage, with some of us, be- 
came enduring discipleship. He fashioned his 
work and life as a teacher after the highest model. 
In the harmonious development of the whole 
being, — the only true culture, — in the imparta- 
tion of himself in loving sympathy, in the unyield- 
ing love encircling all beneath him, he exhibits 
the pattern of the Great Teacher. 

I know these are dead leaves, rather than living 
flowers, from the field of memory. These are 
but the superficial, abstract impressions, left after 
the lapse of years. To me the sweet savor and 
memory of his kindly aid as a teacher is the rich- 
est of all legacies. A thousand bright memories 
springing out of this blessed relationship of teacher 
and pupil come thronging around me; but they 



156 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

swim and glint upon the floods which choke the 
utterance. To many of you was vouchsafed the 
blessing of other and later relationships: to me 
the older one never ended. God grant that it 
may never end to any of us ! 

He taught lessons to all people, out of all events. 
His great grasp of mind and wonderful power of 
generalization made it easy for him to evoke great 
lessons out of all situations and junctures; and 
while in him we had unbounded faith, and trusted 
him as equal to all trials and burdens, yet his own 
humility and better wisdom never allowed him to 
close his eyes to perils. 

His own prophetic spirit has given us the best 
lesson that we can get out of the awful mystery 
of the hour. Standing on the sloping heights of 
Arlington, over the graves of fifteen thousand 
men, he spoke these words, now suggestive and 
full of peace to us all: — 

"For the noblest man that lives, there still remains a 
conflict. He must still withstand the assaults of time and 
fortune, must still be assailed with temptations before which 
lofty natures have fallen. But with these the conflict ended, 
the victory was won, when death stamped on them the great 
seal of heroic character, and closed a record which years can 
never blot." 



HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 157 

VHL — COLONEL H. N. ELDRIDGE OF CHICAGO.* 

The lengthening shadows remind me and you 
that you have a right to be impatient. What I 
have to say, then, shall have one virtue, — brevity. 

You have gathered at this place of prayer, not 
to recount the glories of the soldier, not to tell the 
story of the statesman. It is for another, a higher, 
a holier purpose. These upturned faces — stran- 
gers to me individually, for the most part — I 
know are the faces of those who have sat at the 
same seat of learning, and who have drank 
draughts of knowledge from the same source. Of 
all the relationships of life, so far as my knowl- 
edge and observation go, the relationships which 
spring from college association are the purest, the 
holiest, the best. For, after all, my friends, what 
are all these grand attainments of genius without 
a heart ? You will bear me out in saying, that, 
above and beyond all men that you ever met, 
James Abram Garfield had the power of making 
himself a part of your life. College days, of all 
others, are the days of sentiment ; and the recol- 
lection of college life comes as a sweet memory 
in the bustling cares that come after, and, like 

1 Colonel Eldridge was a classmate of Garfield's at Williams. 



158 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

glints of sunshine through the rifted cloud, they 
are a glory and a beauty forever. It is his gener- 
ous impulses, and the greatness of his heart, that 
you and I have come here to think of, to remember, 
and to dream over again, this September afternoon. 
Wherever Garfield went, he carried with him 
that which could never be forgotten. I recollect 
an incident that occurred soon after General Han- 
cock was nominated for the Presidency, when there 
was an appearance of the tide turning that way. 
I dined with a pronounced and prominent politi- 
cian ; and the remark was made by me, " Should 
the election take place to-day, I fear that my old 
friend Garfield would be in the minority." — 
"Yes," said he; "but the election don't take place 
to-day, and that is what troubles me. I fear that 
betwixt now and next November the great people 
of the North will learn to know your friend as 
you know him." My friends, the millions of this 
land and the millions of other lands are begin- 
ning to know him as you and I know him ; and as 
the days shall come, and as the time of this solemn 
pageant shall become the past, the light of his 
memory shall be as the torch in the fisherman's 
boat, that distance frees from all smoke, and that 
only gleams the brighter, the farther it recedes 
from view. 



Paet II. 

$regfoent ffiarfieto's $peecfjes an* Stresses 



ON 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATORS. 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 



rj^HE phrase " Education and Educators" does 
not fully describe this collection of addresses 
and speeches. Still they form a distinct group, 
having a centre of unity, and so may properly be 
brought together. Nor has any better description 
than the one used occurred to their collector. 

The great interest that President Garfield 
always took in education, even after he ceased to 
teach, and grew to influence as a statesman, is 
well known to those who have only a general 
acquaintance with his life. Still the extent of his 
interest, and the value of his contributions to 
educational discussions and literature, is known 
to very few. Even this collection, in which are 
brought together all of the speeches that he him- 
self published, and more besides, is an inadequate 
witness to his interest and activity. He made 
many lectures and addresses at institutes, at col- 
lege commencements, and to schools that he casu- 

161 



162 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ally visited, which were either never published, or 
were meagrely reported in the local press. He 
was always a generous respondent on such occa- 
sions, and always said something worth remember- 
ing. Many a teacher did he thus cheer, many a 
student stimulate, many a parent arouse to his 
duties to his children, many a citizen awaken to 
his relations to public education. He was always 
keenly alive to politics, and to party politics ; but 
never, even in the most exciting times, did he lose 
his interest in the progress of knowledge and the 
education of the people. This collection shows 
the range and the value of his contributions to 
the discussions of these subjects, though it by no 
means exhausts them. It shows as well the range 
of his reading upon educational subjects. 

His efforts to advance the educational interests 
of the country, as they are here revealed, may be 
grouped under four heads. 

I.— THE STATE AND EDUCATION. 

Here his influence was felt along several lines 
of educational enterprise. These will be mentioned 
in order. 

1. The Natio7ial Bureau of Education. — Feb. 
14, 1866, Mr. Garfield presented to the House of 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 163 

Representatives a memorial of the National Asso- 
ciation of School Superintendents, recently held 
in Washington, asking for the establishment of a 
National Bureau of Education ; also a bill that 
accompanied said memorial. This bill was read 
twice, referred to a select committee of seven, and 
ordered printed. This committee consisted of the 
following gentlemen : Garfield of Ohio, Patter- 
son of New Hampshire, Boutwell of Massachu- 
setts, Donnelly of Minnesota, Moulton of Illinois, 
Goodyear of New York, and Randall of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

April 3, following, Mr. Garfield reported from 
the Committee a substitute for the original bill. 
This bill, known as House Bill No. 276, was wider 
in its scope than the bill, submitted with the me- 
morial. Made a law, it would establish a Depart- 
ment of Education. June 5 and 8 it was debated 
by the House at considerable length. It was sup- 
ported by Messrs. Donnelly, Banks, Beaman, and 
others, and opposed by Messrs. Rogers and Pike. 
In its favor, it was argued that the department pro- 
posed would be of great service in gathering and 
publishing statistics and other information concern- 
ing education ; also, that education in the South 
needed particular attention, that the States were 



164 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

not likely to give. It was urged against the bill, 
that such a department was unnecessary and un- 
constitutional, and that it would be expensive. 
Mr. Garfield closed the debate. He had granted 
to other members so much of the hour allowed by 
the rules, that his own speech was cut short by 
the Speaker's hammer. However, in obedience to 
the earnest request of friends of education, he 
wrote out his speech in full, and published it as 
found in this volume. The bill was lost, 59 yeas 
to 61 nays. June 19 a reconsideration was car- 
ried by a vote of 76 to 44. On this question, Mr. 
Garfield said that the measure was framed " at the 
earnest request of the School Commissioners of 
several of the States." He added, " It is an inter- 
est that has no lobby to press its claims. It is 
the voice of the children of the land, asking us to 
give them all the blessings of our civilization. I 
hope that the interest which has moved the other 
side of the House to vote solidly against this lib- 
eral and progressive measure will at least induce 
this side to save it from defeat." The expressions 
" other side " and " this side " need no comment. 
Without the argument implied in these terms, it 
is doubtful whether the bill would have carried. 
It now passed, 80 yeas to 44 nays. Immediately 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 165 

the bill went to the Senate, and was referred to 
the Judiciary Committee. At the next session, 
Jan. 30, 1867, Mr. Trumbull reported it back to 
the Senate. After brief discussion it passed, Feb. 
27. The President's approval, March 2, made it 
a law. 

That this beneficent law was peculiarly Mr. 
Garfield's work, is shown by the facts recited. He 
introduced the subject to the House, was chair- 
man of the special committee, drew up the bill, 
and was its principal champion on the floor. The 
bill as reported by him was not changed in any 
particular in either house. What is more, the 
great change wrought in the temper of the House, 
as shown by the votes (June 8, 49 to 51 ; June 19, 
80 to 44), was almost wholly due to the persistent 
zeal with which he urged the measure in private. 

Apparently the Department of Education was 
in advance of public sentiment : certainly it was 
in advance of Congressional sentiment. No sooner 
was it created, than it was attacked. In these 
later debates the measure was accredited to 
Garfield's "persuasive eloquence." One mem- 
ber said it was carried by " dint of personal en- 
treaty." The author of the Department defended 
it point by point. He protested time and again 



166 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

against " putting out the eyes of the government." 
But, in spite of his efforts, the Department was 
reduced to a Bureau in the Interior Department, 
the appropriations were cut down, and the Bureau 
was for a time thoroughly crippled. By and by 
Congress began to deal more generously with this 
child of his ; and the appropriation for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1882, is more than fifty 
thousand dollars, 1 the largest ever made. 

The Bureau immediately attracted the attention 
of friends of education in the Old World. John 
Bright wrote this letter concerning it : — 

" Rochdale, Jan. 4, 1868. 

" Dear Sir, — I write to thank you for sending me a 
copy of General Garfield's speech on education. I have read 
it with much interest. 

" The Department now to be constituted at Washington 
will doubtless prepare statistics which will inform the world 
of what is doing in the United States on the education ques- 
tion ; and the volume it will publish will have a great effect 
in this country, and, indeed, in all civilized countries. 

" You will have observed the increased interest in educa- 
tion shown in England since the extension of the suffrage. 

1 These are the yearly appropriations: 1867, $1,678.67; 1868, 

$11,757.17; 1869, $23,151.82; 1870, $5,842.50; 1871, $14,606.00; 1872, 

$26,669.89; 1873, $34,835.79; 1874, $34,771.07; 1875, $35,562.53; 1876, 

$35,561.00; 1877, $32,061.79; 1878, $30,340.00; 1879, $31,220.00; 1880, 
$36,720.00; 1881, $45,580.00; 1882, $50,155.00. 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 167 

I hope some great and good measure may be passed at an 
early period. 

" I am very truly yours, 

"John Bright. 

" George J. Abbot, Esq., United States Consul, Sheffield." 

This is the Act as drawn by him, and as origi- 
nally passed : — 

" An Act to establish a Department of Education. 

" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That 
there shall be established, at the city of Washington, a De- 
partment of Education for the purpose of collecting such 
statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress 
of education in the seyeral States and Territories, and of 
diffusing such information respecting the organization and 
management of schools and school systems, and methods of 
teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the 
establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, 
and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout 
the country. 

"Sect. 2. And be it further enacted, That there shall 
be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, a Commissioner of Education, who 
shall be intrusted with the management of the department 
herein established, and who shall receive a salary of four 
thousand dollars per annum, and who shall have authority 
to appoint one chief clerk of his department, who shall 
receive a salary of two thousand dollars per annum, one 



168 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

clerk who shall receive a salary of eighteen hundred dollars 
per annum, and one clerk who shall receive a salary of six- 
teen hundred dollars per annum, which said clerk shall be 
subject to the appointing and removing power of the Com- 
missioner of Education. 

"Sect. 3. A nd be it further enacted, That it shall be the 
duty of the Commissioner of Education to present annually 
to Congress a report embodying the results of his investi- 
gations and labors, together with a statement of such facts 
and recommendations as will, in his judgment, subserve 
the purpose for which this department was established. In 
the first report made by the Commissioner of Education 
under this Act, there shall be presented a statement of the 
several grants of land made by Congress to promote educa- 
tion, and the manner in which these several trusts have 
been managed, the amount of funds arising therefrom, and 
the annual proceeds of the same, as far as the same can be 
determined. 

" Sect. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Commis- 
sioner of Public Buildings is hereby authorized and directed 
to furnish proper offices for the use of the department 
herein established." 

July 28, 1868, this provision was attached to 
the Legislative Appropriation Bill : — 

" After the thirtieth day of June, 1869, the Department 
of Education shall cease ; and there shall be established and 
attached to the Department of the Interior an office to be 
denominated the office of education, the chief officer of 






INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 169 

which shall be Commissioner of Education, at a salary of 
three thousand dollars per annum, who shall, under the 
direction of the Secretary of the Interior, discharge all such 
duties, and superintend, execute, and perform all such acts 
and things, touching and respecting the said office of educa- 
tion, as are devolved by law upon said Commissioner." 

2. The Army Post Schools. — In the year 1866 
General Garfield brought forward another educa- 
tional measure that has already yielded fruit, and 
that promises to yield still more in the future. 
May 2 he moved a new section to the Army Bill 
then pending, as follows : — 

"And be it further enacted, That whenever troops are serv- 
ing at any post, garrison, or permanent camp, there shall 
be established a school where all enlisted men may be pro- 
vided with instruction in the common English branches of 
education, and especially in the history of the United 
States ; and the Secretary of War is authorized and di- 
rected to detail such commissioned and non-commissioned 
officers as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of 
this section." 

He supported the proposition in this short 
speech : — 

" Mr. Speaker, I only ask a word on that subject. One 
of the greatest evils known in standing armies is the evil 
of idleness, the parent of all wickedness, and especially the 



170 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ignorance connected with it. I hope we shall be able to do 
something to eradicate that evil from our army, and to do 
something to make it a patriotic army. In the wearisome 
months spent in camp and at posts and garrisons, there is 
nothing for the soldiers to do but to indulge in some deviltry. 
It is a great evil in the army. I want the enlisted men to 
have opportunities for culture ; and I ask that the Secretary 
of War shall detail officers fitted for that purpose. I think 
such a section will relieve the army from this evil. It has 
been drawn hastily, but I think will commend itself to the 
country. 

" One word more. If it were in my power, I would 
make a law that every man and woman in the United 
States should study American history through the period 
of their minority. We cannot do that throughout the 
United States generally, but we can enforce it to some 
extent upon the privates in our army." 

The proposed section was added to the bill : 
it became law, and forms now the substance of 
Section 1,231 of the Revised Statutes, thus : — 

" Schools shall be established at all posts, garrisons, and 
permanent camps at which troops are stationed, in which 
the enlisted men may be instructed in the common English 
branches of education, and especially in the history of the 
United States ; and the Secretary of War may detail such 
officers and enlisted men as may be necessary to carry out 
this provision. It shall be the duty of the post or garrison 
commander to set apart a suitable room or building for 
school and religious purposes." 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 171 

Little or no attempt to carry out this provision 
appears to have been made until the end of the 
year 1877. In December of that year the Secre- 
tary of War, "believing this to be an important 
provision of law, from the full enforcement of 
which much benefit would accrue, not only to the 
service, but to the enlisted men, — many of whom 
sadly needed the contemplated instruction," — 
convened a board of officers to consider what steps 
should be taken to fully carry it out. This board, 
— consisting of the Quartermaster-General, the 
Adjutant-General, and the Judge-Advocate-Gen- 
eral, — after full inquiry, reported an elaborate 
code of rules for the government of post schools, 
libraries, and reading-rooms. The report was ap- 
proved by the Secretary, and announced to the 
army in General Order No. 24. Col. A. McD. 
McCook was detailed as visitor and inspector of 
the various post-schools, with all the necessary 
powers and authority. 1 The results, up to No- 
vember, 1879, are thus summed up by Gen. 
Eaton, the head of the National Bureau : — 

" Immediate measures were taken at nearly all the perma- 
nent military posts toward the establishment of schools for 
promoting the intelligence of soldiers and affording educa- 

1 Report of Secretary of War, 1878. 



172 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

tion to their children, as well as to those of officers and 
civilians at the remote frontier-posts. Requisitions for the 
construction of suitable buildings for chapel, school, and 
library were soon forwarded by post-commanders, and ap- 
proved by the War Department, whenever funds for the 
purpose were available. At twenty-nine posts such build- 
ings, at a cost of $33,708, were erected ; and, at others, exist- 
ing rooms were put to service. In all, sixty-nine posts were 
thus provided with schools hi 1878-79, and an average of 
seven hundred and fifty-four enlisted men and one thousand 
and thirty-nine children received instruction in them. 

" A letter from the officer who was put in general charge 
of this education in the army (Gen. A. McD. McCook) says 
that great difficulty has been experienced in the selection of 
enlisted men suitable for teachers, and that, at numerous 
posts, schools could not be established (or, if established, 
had to be discontinued) on account of the want of men that 
could be trusted to do the teaching. 

"Enlisted men detailed as teachers receive thirty-five 
cents a day extra pay. They are subject to military disci- 
pline, as other soldiers, and are liable to be called on to per- 
form active service at any time. Normal schools, to prepare 
for teachers enlisted men possessing the .qualifications and 
inclination to become such, have been established at Colum- 
bus Barracks, O., and David's Island, N.Y., depots of the 
general recruiting-service, and thus a better class of teachers 
will probably be soon provided. They are expected to 
understand the rudiments of a common-school education ; 
to be conversant with reading, writing, and arithmetic ; and 
to possess a fair knowledge of geography, grammar, and 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 173 

history. They must also be able to demonstrate clearly, 
and in plain language, the subjects before them. 

" School-books for these schools are furnished by the 
Quartermaster's Department, on the application of post- 
commanders, in lieu of, or in connection with, the news- 
papers and periodicals which it has been the custom to fur- 
nish to each post in proportion to its strength of garrison." 

* 

Since 1879 the post-schools have made laudable 
progress; and there can be no doubt that they 
will do much for the intelligence and morale of 
the army in the future. 1 

3. The " Roar Bill." — The speech on "National 
Aid to Education," Feb. 6, 1872, was in support 
of the proposition to dedicate the public lands to 
education. The subject under immediate consid- 
eration was House Bill No. 1,043, " To establish 
an educational fund, and to apply the proceeds of 
the public lands to the education of the people," 
— what is known as the " Hoar Bill." Unfortu- 
nately this beneficent measure has not yet be- 
come a law, though steadily growing in public 
favor ; but, when it has finally triumphed, Gen- 
eral Garfield's early and able advocacy will not be 
forgotten. 

4. Education and the South. — President Gar- 

1 See Appendix for fuller information touching these schools. 



174 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

field studied " the Southern question " profoundly. 
That he saw the radical trouble in the South, and 
knew the remedy, is shown by his short speech to 
the delegation of colored men that visited him at 
Mentor, Jan. 14, 1881. In a private letter dated 
Dec. 30, 1880, he wrote, " I have no doubt that the 
final cure for the ' Solid South ' will be found in 
the education of its youth and in the development 
of its business interests ; but both these things re- 
quire time." No part of his Inaugural is more elo- 
quent than that in which he presented this subject. 
What is more, in the last private conversation the 
writer ever had with him (the evening of March 
6, 1881), he said, " I am going to keep that sub- 
ject before me all the time, and shall see that 
something is done in that direction if possible." 
His plan was not worked out, probably, when he 
was stricken by the assassin's bullet ; but his 
heart was fixed upon this as a prominent feature 
of his administration, — national aid to public, 
and especially to Southern, education. 

II. — THE. STATE AND SCIENCE. 

His views touching this question were always 
liberal and progressive. In the Ohio Senate he 
strove to secure the enacting of a law authorizing 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 175 

a geological survey of the State. He submitted 
a bill for that purpose, and supported it in a 
lengthy and able report. He also made a similar 
report upon weights and measures. At Washing- 
ton he supported every intelligent and practical 
scheme touching the extension of scientific knowl- 
edge, or its reduction to practical uses, — the coast- 
survey, the light-houses, the signal-service, the 
life-saving service, Arctic exploration, and the 
geological and other surveys. 

Every man who went to him with a well-con- 
sidered proposition pointing in such directions as 
these found him an eager and appreciative listener. 
The scientific men of the country, especially those 
who were in any way serving the government, as 
well as the public, — geologists, botanists, astron- 
omers, engineers, and explorers, — came to rely 
greatly upon him for securing the appropriations 
that they needed to carry on or enlarge their work. 
Nor was this solely because he was for some time 
the head of the Appropriations Committee. For 
many years he was a regent of the Smithsonian 
Institution. Here he was brought into official 
relations with Agassiz and Henry, both of whom 
became his intimate friends. His general views 
touching the sphere of the National Government 



176 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

as respects science, lie stated in his speech upon 
that subject. 

Besides, he made a strenuous attempt, in 1869, 
to secure a more rational and efficient census law. 
After months of labor enthusiastically devoted to 
the subject, he carried his bill through the House ; 
but it failed in the Senate. The law of 1880, 
under which our only real census has been taken, 
is little more than his bill of ten years before 
reproduced. 

Here it may be remarked, that no man in either 
house of Congress, from 1863 to 1880, was more 
constantly on the outlook for opportunities to do 
something, by way of legislation, for science, edu- 
cation, and general knowledge. The man who cares 
"to go through the Congressional proceedings will 
probably be surprised to find how often he came 
forward with an amendment to a bill, or with an 
original measure, professing to reach some such 
end that he thought valuable. Some of these 
failed, but many succeeded. 

III. — STUDIES AND METHODS. 

President Garfield graduated in the traditionary 
college course. In 1854-56 the modern courses 
of study had not been established, at least fully, 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 177 

in any American college. He was an excellent 
classical student and teacher. Probably he did 
not so much excel as a grammarian ; but few- 
students or teachers equalled him in reading 
thoughts out of (or into ?) Latin or Greek. After 
he became absorbed in public affairs, he kept 
alive his classical reading, more particularly the 
Latin poets. Once he said, "Early in life men 
read Virgil; later, Horace." Certainly Horace 
grew upon him with the flight of years. Since 
his death, it has been said that his collection of 
editions of the poet is one of the finest in the 
country. The last summer Hon. W. M. Evarts 
brought him a new and choice edition that he 
had found in Europe. This was presented to the 
President on his sick-bed, and gave him much 
pleasure. But, while thus drawn to the old litera- 
tures by taste, appreciation, and association, he 
could not help seeing that the new conditions — 
the enormous extension of knowledge, the growth 
of modern literature, and the development of 
industry — called imperatively for a widely differ- 
entiated education. The "new education" took 
a strong hold upon his mind. He believed in the 
new courses of study. He favored a revision of 
the classical course. He said Greek and Latin 



178 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

must somewhat give way, but confessed at the 
time that the proposition was like putting his 
brothers and sisters out of doors. His views on 
these subjects matured as early as 1867. That 
year the Eclectic Institute became Hiram College. 
Naturally he was called upon to start the old 
school upon her new course. This he did in the 
address entitled "College Education," in which 
he stated his conclusions both fully and strongly. 
In one direction they are also developed in " Ele- 
ments of Success in Life." Even at the time 
when he spoke at Hiram (1867), and before, the 
era of change in college study had begun. Since 
that day, the new spirit has reached and influ- 
enced nearly every college in the land. Attention 
may also be called to the short speech before the 
Washington Convention of School Superintend- 
ents in 1879. This shows that he thought the 
public schools open to much criticism and amend- 
ment. Perhaps it is proper to add that his private 
utterances upon this point were even stronger than 
those made in public. 

IV.— TRIBUTES TO EDUCATORS. 

In the three addresses thus grouped, General 
Garfield gives expression to his estimate of the 



INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 179 

scientific and educational character. Dr. Morse 
he did not know personally; and so his short 
speech at the Morse Commemoration was wholly 
historical. But the other two addresses are full 
of interesting biographical detail. It is true that 
Morse, and even Henry, in later years, was not 
an educator in the sense of being a teacher ; but 
knowledge is so related to instruction, science to 
education proper, that the admirable commemora- 
tive addresses upon them may be fitly put into 
this collection. There is a peculiar fitness in the 
other addresses appearing here. Miss Booth and 
Mr. Garfield were fellow-students and fellow- 
teachers, and her name will be linked with his 
in the memories of hundreds of their joint disciples 
to their latest day. The Hiram fellowship justly 
regard this as an admirable discourse, and one of 
the noblest products of his eloquence. With it 
the volume fitly closes. 



I. 



&{je National Bureau of lEoucatton. 

SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
JUNE 8, 1866. 



I. 

THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 

IV /TR. SPEAKER, — I did intend to make a 
^ somewhat elaborate statement of the rea- 
sons why the select committee recommend the 
passage of this bill ; but I know the anxiety that 
many gentlemen feel to have this debate con- 
cluded, and to allow the private bills now on the 
calendar, and set for this day, to be disposed of, 
and to complete as soon as possible the work of 
this session. I will therefore abandon my original 
purpose, and restrict myself to a brief statement 
of a few leading points in the argument, and leave 
the decision with the House. I hope this waiving 
of a full discussion of the bill will not be con- 
strued into a confession that it is inferior in im- 
portance to any measure before the House ; for I 
know of none that has a nobler object, or that 
more vitally affects the future of this nation. 

I first ask the House to consider the magnitude 
of the interests involved in this bill. The very 

183 



184 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

attempt to discover the amount of pecuniary and 
personal interest we have in our schools shows the 
necessity of such a law as is here proposed. I 
have searched in vain for any complete or reliable 
statistics showing the educational condition of the 
whole country. 

The estimates I have made are gathered from 
various sources, and can be only approximately 
correct. I am satisfied, however, that they are far 
below the truth. 

Even from the incomplete and imperfect educa- 
tional statistics of the Census Bureau, it appears 
that in 1860 there were in the United States 
115,224 common schools, 500,000 school officers, 
150,241 teachers, and 5,477,037 scholars ; thus 
showing that more than 6,000,000 of the people 
of the United States are directly engaged in the 
work of education. 

Not only has this large proportion of our popu- 
lation been thus engaged, but the Congress of the 
United States has given 53,000,000 acres of public 
lands to fourteen States and Territories of the 
Union for the support of schools. In the old 
ordinance of 1785, it was provided that one sec- 
tion of every township — one thirty -sixth of all 
the public lands of the United States — should 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 185 

be set apart, and held forever sacred to the sup- 
port of the schools of the country. In the ordi- 
nance of 1787, it was declared that, "religion, 
morality, and knowledge being necessary to good 
government and the happiness of mankind, 
schools and the means of education shall forever 
be encouraged." 

It is estimated that at least 850,000,000 have 
been given in the United States by private indi- 
viduals for the support of schools. We have thus 
an interest, even pecuniarily considered, hardly 
second to any other. We have school statistics 
tolerably complete from only seventeen States of 
the Union. 

Our Congressional Library contains no educa- 
tional reports whatever from the remaining nine- 
teen. In those seventeen States, there are 90,835 
schools, 129,000 teachers, 5,107,285 pupils; and 
834,000,000 are annually appropriated by the 
Legislatures for the support and maintenance of 
common schools. Notwithstanding the great ex- 
penditures entailed upon them during four years 
of war, they raised by taxation 834,000,000 annu- 
ally for the support of common schools. In sev- 
eral States of the Union, more than fifty per cent 
of all the tax imposed for State purposes is for the 



186 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

support of the common schools. And yet gen- 
tlemen are impatient because we wish to occupy 
a short time in considering this bill. 

I will not trouble the House by repeating com- 
monplaces so familiar to every gentleman here, as 
that our system of government is based upon the 
intelligence of the people. But I wish to sug- 
gest that there never has been a time when all 
our educational forces should be in such perfect 
activity as at the present day. 

Ignorance — stolid ignorance ■ — is not our most 
dangerous enemy. There is very little of that 
kind of ignorance among the white population of 
this country. 

In the Old World, among the despotic govern- 
ments of Europe, the great disfranchised class — 
the pariahs of political and social life — are in- 
deed ignorant, mere inert masses, moved upon and 
controlled by the intelligent and cultivated aris- 
tocracy. Any unrepresented and hopelessly dis- 
franchised class in a government will inevitably 
be struck with intellectual paralysis. Our late 
slaves afford a sad illustration. 

But among the represented and voting classes 
of this country, where all are equal before the 
law, and every man is a political power for good 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 187 

or evil, there is but little of the inertia of ignor- 
ance. The alternatives are not education or no 
education ; but shall the power of the citizen be 
directed aright towards industry, liberty, and 
patriotism ? or, under the baneful influence of false 
theories and evil influences, shall it lead him con- 
tinually downward, and work out anarchy and 
ruin, both to him and the government ? 

If he is not educated in the school of virtue 
and integrity, he will be educated in the school of 
vice and iniquity. We are, therefore, afloat on 
the sweeping current : we must make head against 
it, or we shall go down with it to the saddest of 
destinies. 

According to the census of 1860, there were 
1,218,311 inhabitants of the United States over 
twenty-one years of age who could not read or 
write; and 871,418 of these were American-born 
citizens. One-third of a million of people are 
being annually thrown upon our shores from the 
Old World, a large per cent of whom are unedu- 
cated ; and the gloomy total has been swelled by 
the 4,000,000 slaves admitted to citizenship by 
the events of the war. 

Such, sir, is the immense force which we must 
now confront by the genius of our institutions, 



188 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

and the light of our civilization. How shall it be 
done? An American citizen can give but one 
answer. We must pour upon them all the light 
of our public schools. We must make them intel- 
ligent, industrious, patriotic citizens, or they will 
drag us and our children down to their level. 
Does not this question rise to the full height of 
national importance, and demand the best efforts 
of statesmanship to adjust it? 

Horace Mann has well said that —? 

" Legislators and rulers are responsible. In our country 
and in our times, no man is worthy the honored name of a 
statesman who does not include the highest practicable 
education of the people in all his plans of administration. 

" He may have eloquence, he may have a knowledge of 
all history, diplomacy, jurisprudence, and by these he may 
claim, in other countries, the elevated rank of a statesman ; 
but unless he speaks, plans, labors, at all times and in all 
places, for the culture and edification of the whole people, he 
is not, he cannot be, an American statesman." 

Gentlemen who have discussed the bill this 
morning tell us that it will result in great expense 
to the government. Whether an enterprise is 
3xpensive, or not, is altogether a relative question, 
to be determined by the importance of the object 
in view. 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 189 

Now, what have we done as a nation in the 
way of expenses ? In 1832 we organized a Coast 
Survey Bureau, and have expended millions upon 
it. Its officers have triangulated thousands of 
miles of our coasts, have made soundings of all our 
bays and harbors, and carefully mapped the shoals, 
breakers, and coast-lines from our northern bound- 
ary on the Atlantic to the extreme northern 
boundary on the Pacific coast. They have estab- 
lished eight hundred tidal stations to observe the 
fluctuations of the tides. We have expended vast 
sums in order perfectly to know the topography 
of our coasts, lakes, and rivers, that we might 
make navigation more safe. Is it of no conse- 
quence that we explore the boundaries of that 
wonderful intellectual empire which encloses with- 
in its domain the fate of succeeding generations 
and of this Republic ? The children of to-day will 
be the architects of our country's destiny in 1900. 

We have established an Astronomical Observa- 
tory, where the movements of the stars are 
watched, latitude and longitude calculated, and 
chronometers regulated for the benefit of naviga- 
tion. For this observatory we pay one-third of a 
million per annum. Is it of no consequence that 
you observe the movements of those stars which 



190 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

shall, in the time to come, be guiding stars in our 
national firmament ? 

We have established a Light House Board, that 
is employing all the aids of science to discover 
the best modes of regulating the beacons upon 
our shores: it is placing buoys as way-marks to 
guide ships safely into our harbors. Will you not 
create a light-house board to set up beacons for 
the coming generation, not as lights to the eye, 
but to the mind and heart, that shall guide them 
safely in the perilous voyage of life, and enable 
them to transmit the blessings of liberty to those 
who shall come after them ? 

We have set on foot a score of expeditions to 
explore the mountains and valleys, the lakes and 
rivers, of this and other countries. We have ex- 
pended money without stint to explore the Ama- 
zon and the Jordan, Chili and Japan, the gold 
shores of Colorado and the copper cliffs of Lake 
Superior, to gather and publish the great facts of 
science, and to exhibit the material resources of 
physical nature. Will you refuse the pitiful sum 
of $13,000 to collect and record the intellectual 
resources of this country, the elements that lie 
behind all material wealth, and make it either a 
curse or a blessing ? 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 191 

We have paid three-quarters of a million dollars 
for the survey of the route for the Pacific Railroad, 
and have published the results, at a great cost, in 
thirteen quarto volumes, with accompanying maps 
and charts. The money for these purposes was 
freely expended. And now, when it is proposed 
to appropriate $ 13,000 to aid in increasing the 
intelligence of those who will use that great con- 
tinental highway when it is completed, we are 
reminded of our debts, and warned against in- 
creasing our expenditures. It is difficult to treat 
such an objection with the respect that is always 
due in this hall of legislation. 

We have established a Patent Office, where are 
annually accumulated thousands of models of new 
machines invented by our people. Will you make 
no expenditure for the benefit of the intelligence 
that shall stand behind those machines, and be 
their controller ? Will you bestow all your favors 
upon the engine, and ignore the engineer? I will 
not insult the intelligence of this House by wait- 
ing to prove that money paid for education is the 
most economical of all expenditure ; that it is 
cheaper to prevent crime than to build jails ; that 
schoolhouses are less expensive than rebellions. 
A tenth of our national debt expended in public 



192 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

education fifty years ago would have saved us the 
blood and treasure of the late war. A far less 
sum may save our children from a still greater 
calamity. 

We expend hundreds of thousands annually to 
promote the agricultural interests of the country, — 
to introduce the best methods in all that pertains 
to husbandry. Is it not of more consequence to 
do something for the farmer of the future than for 
the farm of to-day ? 

As man is more precious than soil, as the im- 
mortal spirit is nobler than the clod it animates, 
so is the object of this bill more important than 
any mere pecuniary interest. 

The genius of our government does not allow 
us to establish a compulsory system of education, 
as is done in some of the countries of Europe. 
There are States in this Union, however, which 
have adopted a compulsory system ; and perhaps 
that is well. It is for each State to determine. A 
distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island told 
me lately that it is now the law in that Staie that 
every child within its borders shall attend school, 
and that every vagrant child shall be taken in 
charge by the authorities, and sent to school. It 
may be well for other States to pursue the same 









THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 193 

course ; but probably the General Government can 
do nothing of the sort. Whether it has the right 
of compulsory control, or not, we propose none in 
this bill. 

But we do propose to use that power, so effec- 
tive in this country, of letting in light on sub- 
jects, and holding them up to the verdict of public 
opinion. If it could be published annually from 
this Capitol, through every school-district of the 
United States, that there are States in the Union 
that have no system of common schools; and if 
their records could be placed beside the records of 
such States as Massachusetts, New York, Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and other States that have a com- 
mon-school system, — the mere statement of the 
fact would rouse their energies, and compel them 
for shame to educate their children. It would 
shame all the delinquent States out of their delin- 
quency. 

Mr. Speaker, if I were called upon to-day to 
point to that in my own State of which I am most 
proud, I would not point to any of the flaming 
lines of her military record, to the heroic men and 
the brilliant officers she gave to this contest ; I 
would not point to any of her leading men of the 
past or the present : but I would point to her com 



194 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

mon schools ; I would point to the honorable fact, 
that in the great struggle of five years, through 
which we have just passed, she has expended 
112,000,000 for the support of her public schools. 
I do not include in that amount the sums ex- 
pended upon our higher institutions of learning. 
I would point to the fact, that fifty-two per cent 
of the taxation of Ohio for the last five years, 
aside from the war-tax and the tax for the pay- 
ment of her public debt, has been for the support 
of her schools. I would point to the schools of 
Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, and other cities of 
the State, if I desired a stranger to see the glory 
of Ohio. I would point to the 13,000 school- 
houses and the 700,000 pupils in the schools of 
Ohio. I would point to the $3,000,000 she has 
paid for schools during the last year alone. This, 
in my judgment, is the proper gauge by which to 
measure the progress and glory of States. 

Gentlemen tell us there is no need of this bill, 
the States are doing well enough now. Do they 
know through what a struggle every State has 
come up, that has secured a good system of com- 
mon schools ? Let me illustrate this by one ex- 
ample. Notwithstanding the early declaration of 
William Penn, — 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 195 

"That which makes a good constitution must keep it, 
namely, men of wisdom and virtue ; qualities, that, because 
they descend not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully 
propagated by a virtuous education of youth, for which 
spare no cost, for by such parsimony all that is saved is 
lost ; " 

notwithstanding that wise master-builder incor- 
porated this sentiment in his " framework of gov- 
ernment," and made it the duty of the governor 
and council " to establish and support public 
schools ; " notwithstanding Benjamin Franklin, 
from the first hour he became a citizen of Penn- 
sylvania, inculcated the value of useful knowl- 
edge to every human being in every walk of life, 
and by his personal and pecuniary effort did 
establish schools and a college for Philadelphia; 
notwithstanding the Constitution of Pennsylvania 
made it obligatory upon the Legislature to foster 
the education of the citizens : notwithstanding all 
this, it was not till 1833-34 that a system of com- 
mon schools, supported in part by taxation of the 
property of the State, for the common benefit of 
all the children of the State, was established by 
law; and, although the law was passed by an 
almost unanimous vote of both branches of the 
Legislature, so foreign was the idea of public 



196 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

schools to the habits of the people, so odious was 
the idea of taxation for this purpose, that even 
the poor who were to be specially benefited were 
so deluded by political demagogues as to clamor 
for its repeal. 

Many members who voted for the law lost their 
nominations ; and others, although nominated, lost 
their elections. Some were weak enough to pledge 
themselves to a repeal of the law; and in the 
session of 1885 there was an almost certain pros- 
pect of its repeal, and the adoption in its place of 
an odious and limited provision for educating the 
children of the poor by themselves. In the dark- 
est hour of the debate, when the hearts of the 
original friends of the system were failing from 
fear, there rose on the floor of the House one of 
its early champions, one who, though not a native 
of the State, felt the disgrace which the repeal of 
this law would inflict, like a knife in his bosom ; 
one who, though no kith or kin of his would be 
benefited by the operations of the system, and 
though he should share its burdens, would only 
partake with every citizen in its blessings; one 
who voted for the original law although intro- 
duced by his political opponents, and who had 
defended and gloried in his vote before an angry 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 197 

and unwilling constituency : this man, then in the 
beginning of his public career, threw himself into 
the conflict, and by his earnest and brave elo- 
quence saved the law, and gave a noble system 
of common schools to Pennsylvania. 

I doubt if at this hour, after the thirty years 
crowded full of successful labors at the bar, before 
the people, and in halls of legislation, the venera- 
ble and distinguished member [Mr. Stevens], who 
now represents a portion of the same State in this 
House, can recall any speech of his life with half 
the pleasure he does that, for no measure with 
which his name has been connected is so fraught 
with blessings to hundreds of thousands of chil- 
dren, and to homes innumerable. 

I hold in my hand a copy of his brave speech, 
and I ask the clerk to read the passages I have 
marked. 

" I am comparatively a stranger among you, born in an- 
other, in a distant State : no parent or kindred of mine did, 
does, or probably ever will, dwell within your borders. I 
have none of those strong cords to bind me to your honor 
and your interest ; yet, if there is any one thing on earth 
which I ardently desire above all others, it is to see Penn- 
sylvania standing up in her intellectual, as she confessedly 
does in her physical resources, high above all her confed- 



198 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

erate rivals. How shameful, then, would it be for these her 
native sons to feel less so, when the dust of their ancestors 
is mingled with her soil, their friends and relatives enjoy 
her present prosperity, and their descendants, for long ages 
to come, will partake of her happiness or misery, her glory 
or her infamy ! 

" In giving this law to posterity, you act the part of the 
philanthropist by bestowing upon the poor, as well as the 
rich, the greatest earthly boon which they are capable of 
receiving ; you act the part of the philosopher bv pointing, 
if you do not lead them, up the hill of science ; \ou act the 
part of the hero, if it be true, as you say, that popular 
vengeance follows close upon your footsteps. Here, then, if 
you wish true popularity, is a theatre on which you may 
acquire it. 

" Let all, therefore, who would sustain the character of the 
philosopher or philanthropist, sustain this law. Those who 
would add thereto the glory of the hero can acquire it here ; 
for, in the present state of feeling in Pennsylvania, I am 
willing to admit that but little less dangerous to the public 
man is the war-club and battle-axe of savage ignorance than 
to the lion-hearted Richard was the keen cimeter of the 
Saracen. He who would oppose it, either through inability 
to comprehend the advantages of general education, or from 
unwillingness to bestow them on all his fellow-citizens, even 
to the lowest and the poorest, or from dread of popular 
vengeance, seems to me to want either the head of the 
philosopher, the heart of the philanthropist, or the nerve of 
the hero." 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 199 

He has lived long enough to see this law, which 
he helped to found in 1834, and more than any 
other man was instrumental in saving from repeal 
in 1835, expanded and consolidated into a noble 
system of public instruction. 12,000 schools have 
been built by the voluntary taxation of the people, 
to the amount, for schoolhouses alone, of nearly 
$10,000,000. Many millions of children have been 
educated in these schools. More than 700,000 
attended the public schools of Pennsylvania in 
1864-65 ; and their annual cost provided by vol- 
untary taxation, in the year 1864, was nearly 
13,000,000, giving employment to 16,000 teach- 
ers. 

It is glory enough for one man to have con- 
nected his name so honorably with the original 
establishment and effective defence of such a 
system. 

But it is said that the thirst for knowledge 
among the young, and the pride and ambition of 
parents for their children, are agencies powerful 
enough to establish and maintain thorough and 
comprehensive systems of education. 

This suggestion is answered by the unanimous 
voice of publicists and political economists. They 
all admit that the doctrine of " demand and sup- 



200 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ply " does not apply to educational wants. Even 
the most extreme advocates of the principle of 
laissez-faire as a sound maxim of political philos- 
ophy admit that governments must interfere in 
aid of education. We must not wait for the wants 
of the rising generation to "be expressed in a 
demand for means of education. We must our- 
selves discover or supply their needs, before the 
time for supplying them has forever passed. 

In his " Political Economy," 1 John Stuart Mill 
says, — 

" But there are other things, of the worth of which the 
demand of the market is by no means a test ; things of 
which the utility does not consist in ministering to inclina- 
tions, nor in serving the daily uses of life, and the want of 
which is least felt where the need is greatest. This is pecul- 
iarly true of those things which are chiefly useful as tend- 
ing to raise the character of human beings. The uncul- 
tivated cannot be competent judges of cultivation. 

" Those who most need to be made wiser and better usu- 
ally desire it least, and, if they desired it, would be incapable 
of finding the way to it by their own lights. It will con- 
tinually happen, on the voluntary system, that, the end not 
being desired, the means will not be provided at all, or that, 
the persons requiring improvement having an imperfect or 
altogether' erroneous conception of what they want, the supply 

i Vol. ii., pp. 528, 529; American ed., pp. 573-575. 



THE NATIONAL BUBEAU OF EDUCATION. 201 

called forth by the demand of the market will be any thing 
but what is really required. Now, any well-intentioned and 
tolerably civilized government may think, without presump- 
tion, that it does, or ought to, possess a degree of cultivation 
above the average of the community which it rules, and 
that it should therefore be capable of offering better educa- 
tion and better instruction to the people, than the greater 
number of them would spontaneously demand. 

" Education, therefore, is one of those things which it is 
admissible in principle that the government should provide 
for the people. The case is one to which the reasons of the 
non-interference principle do not necessarily or universally 
extend. 

" With regard to elementary education, the exception to 
ordinary rules may, I conceive, justifiably be carried still 
further. There are certain primary elements and means of 
knowledge which it is in the highest degree desirable that 
all human beings born into the community should acquire 
during childhood. If their parents, or those on whom they 
depend, have the power of obtaining for them this instruc- 
tion, and fail to do it, they commit a double breach of duty, 
— toward the children themselves, and toward the members 
of the community generally, who are all liable to suffer 
seriously from the consequences of ignorance and want of 
education in their fellow-citizens. It is therefore an allow- 
able exercise of the powers of a government to impose on 
parents the legal obligation of giving elementary instruction 
to children. This, however, cannot fairly be done without 
taking measures to insure that such instruction shall be 
always accessible to them, either gratuitously or at a trifling 
expense." 



202 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

This is the testimony of economic science. I 
trust the statesmen of this Congress will not think 
the subject of education too humble a theme for 
their most serious consideration. It has engaged 
the earnest attention of the best men of ancient 
and modern times, especially of modern statesmen 
and philanthropists. 

I will fortify myself in the positions I have taken 
by quoting the authority of a few men who are 
justly regarded as teachers of the human race. If 
I keep in their company, I cannot wander far from 
the truth. I cannot greatly err while I am guided 
by their counsel. 

In his eloquent essay entitled " Way to establish 
a Free Commonwealth," John Milton said, — 

" To make the people fittest to choose, and the chosen 
fittest to govern, will be to mend our corrupt and faulty 
education, to teach the people faith, not without virtue, 
temperance, modesty, sobriety, economy, justice ; not to ad- 
mire wealth or honor ; to hate turbulence and ambition ; to 
place every one his private welfare and happiness in the 
public peace, liberty, and safety." 

England's most venerable living statesman, 
Lord Brougham, enforced the same truth in these 
noble words : — 



THE NATIONAL BUEEAU OF EDUCATION. 203 

" Lawgivers of England, I charge ye, have a care ! Be 
well assured that the contempt lavished upon the cabals of 
Constantinople, when the council disputed on a text while 
the enemy, the derider of all their texts, was thundering at 
the gate, will be a token of respect compared with the loud 
shout of universal scorn which all mankind in all ages will 
send up against you if you stand still and suffer a far dead- 
lier foe than the Turcoman — suffer the parent of all evil, 
all falsehood, all hypocrisy, all discharity, all self-seeking, 
him who covers over with pretexts of conscience the pitfalls 
that he digs for the souls on which he preys — to stalk about 
the fold, and lay waste its inmates : stand still, and make no 
head against him, upon the vain pretext, to soothe your 
indolence, that your action is obstructed by religious cabals, — 
upon the far more guilty speculation, that by playing a party 
game you can turn the hatred of conflicting professors to 
your selfish purposes ! 

" Let the soldier be abroad if he will : he can do nothing 
in this age. There is another personage abroad, — a person 
less imposing, — in the eye of some, insignificant. The 
schoolmaster is abroad ; and I trust to him, armed with his 
primer, against the soldier in full uniform array." 

Lord Brougham gloried in the title of School- 
master, and contrasted his work with that of the 
military conqueror in these words : — 

" The conqueror stalks onward with ' the pride, pomp, and 
circumstance of war,' banners flying, shouts rending the air, 
guns thundering, and martial music pealing, to drown the 



204 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

shrieks of the wounded and the lamentations for the slain. 
Not thus the schoolmaster in his peaceful vocation. He 
meditates and prepares in secret the plans which are to bless 
mankind; he slowly gathers around him those who are to 
further their execution ; he quietly, though firmly, advances 
in his humble path, laboring steadily, but calmly, till he has 
opened to the light all the recesses of ignorance, and torn up 
by the roots the weeds of vice. His is a progress not to be 
compared with any thing like a march ; but it leads to a far 
more brilliant triumph, and to laurels more imperishable 
than the destroyer of his species, the scourge of the world, 
ever won." 

The learned and brilliant Guizot, who regarded 
his work in the office of Minister of Public Instruc- 
tution, in the .government of France, the noblest 
and most valuable work of his life, has left us this 
valuable testimony : — 

" Universal education is henceforth one of the guaranties 
of liberty and social stability. As every principle of our 
government is founded on justice and reason, to diffuse edu- 
cation among the people, to develop then* understandings 
and enlighten their minds, is to strengthen their constitu- 
tional government, and secure its stability." 

In his Farewell Address, Washington wrote these 
words of wise counsel : — 

" Promote, as an object of primary importance, institu- 
tions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion 



THE NATIONAL BUKEATJ OF EDUCATION. 205 

as the structure of a government gives force to public opin- 
ion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlight- 
ened." 

In his Inaugural Address, when first taking the 
Presidential chair, the elder Adams said, — 

" The wisdom and generosity of the legislature in making 
liberal appropriations in money for the benefit of schools, 
academies, and colleges, is an equal honor to them and to 
their constituents, a proof of their veneration for letters and 
science, and a portent of great and lasting good to North 
and South America and to the world. Great is truth — 
great is liberty — great is humanity — and they must and 
will prevail." 

Chancellor Kent used this decided language : — 

" The parent who sends his son into the world uneducated, 
defrauds the community of a lawful citizen, and bequeaths 
to it a nuisance." 

I shall conclude the citation of opinions with 
the stirring words of Edward Everett : — 

" I know not to what we can better liken the strong ap- 
petence of the mind for improvement than to a hunger and 
thirst after knowledge and truth, nor how we can better 
describe the province of education than to say, it does that 
for the intellect which is done for the body, when it re- 
ceives the care and nourishment which are necessary for its 
growth, health, and strength. 



206 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

" From this comparison I think I derive new views of the 
importance of education. It is now a solemn duty, a tender, 
sacred trust., 

"What! feed a child's body, and let his soul hunger! 
pamper his limbs, and starve his faculties! 

" Plant the earth, cover a thousand hills with your droves 
of cattle, pursue the fish to their hiding-places in the sea, 
and spread out your wheat-fields across the plains, in order 
to supply the wants of that body which will soon be as 
cold and senseless as their poorest clod, and let the pure 
spiritual essence within you, with all its glorious capacities 
for improvement, languish and pine! What! build facto- 
ries, turn in rivers upon the water-wheels, unchain the im- 
prisoned spirits of steam, to weave a garment for the body, 
and let the soul remain unadorned and naked ! 

" What ! send out your vessels to the farthest ocean, and 
make battle with the monsters of the deep, in order to obtain 
the means of lighting up your dwellings and workshops, and 
prolonging the hours of labor for the meat that perisheth, 
and permit that vital spark which God has kindled, which 
he has intrusted to our care, to be fanned into a bright and 
heavenly flame, — permit it, I say, to languish and go out ! " 

It is remarkable that so many good things have 
been said, and so few things done, by our national 
statesmen, in favor of education. If we inquire 
what has been done by the governments of other 
countries to support and advance public educa- 
tion, we are compelled to confess with shame that 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 207 

every government in Christendom lias given a 
more intelligent and effective support to schools 
than has our own. 

The free cities of Germany organized the ear- 
liest school systems after the separation of Church 
and State. The present schools of Hamburg have 
existed more than one thousand years. The earli- 
est school-codes were framed in the Duchy of 
Wurtemburg in 1565, and in the Electorate of 
Saxony in 1580. Under these codes were estab- 
lished systems of schools, more perfect, it is 
claimed, than the school system of any State of 
the American Union. 

Their systems embraced the gymnasium and 
the university, and were designed, as their laws 
expressed it, "to carry youth from the elements 
to the degree of culture demanded for offices in 
Church and State." 

The educational institutions of Prussia are too 
well known to need a comment. It is a sufficient 
index of their progress and high character, that 
a late Prussian school-officer said of his official 
duties, — 

" I promised God that I would look upon every Prussian 
peasant child as a being "who could complain of me before 
God if T did not provide for him the best education as a 



208 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

man and a Christian which it was possible for me to 
provide." 

France did not think herself dishonored by- 
learning from a nation which she had lately con- 
quered; and when, in 1831, she began to provide 
more fully for the education of her people, she 
sent the philosopher Cousin to Holland and 
Prussia to study and report upon the schools 
of those states. Guizot was made minister of 
public instruction, and held the office from 1832 
to 1837. In 1833 the report of Cousin was pub- 
lished, and the educational system of France was 
established on the Prussian model. 

No portion of his brilliant career reflects more 
honor upon Guizot than his five-years' work for 
the schools of France. The fruits of his labors 
were not lost in the revolutions that followed. 
The present emperor is giving his best efforts to 
the perfection and maintenance of schools, and is 
endeavoring to make the profession of the teacher 
more honorable and desirable than it has been 
hitherto. 

Through the courtesy of the Secretary of State, 
I have obtained a copy of the last annual report 
of the Minister of Public Instruction in France, 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 209 

which exhibits the present state of education in 
that empire. 

At the last enumeration there were in France, 
in the colleges and lyceums, 65,832 pupils ; in the 
secondary schools, 200,000 ; and in the primary or 
common schools, 4,720,234. 

Besides the large amount raised by local taxa- 
tion, the imperial government appropriated, during 
the year 1865, 2,349,051 francs for the support of 
primary schools. 

Teaching is one of the regular professions in 
France ; and the government offers prizes, and 
bestows honors upon the successful instructor of 
children. During the year 1865, 1,154 prizes were 
distributed to teachers in primary schools. 

An order of honor, and a medal worth 250 
francs, are awarded to the best teacher in each 
commune. 

After long and faithful service in his profession, 
the teacher is retired on half-pay, and, if broken 
down in health, is pensioned for life. In 1865, 
there were 4,245 teachers on the pension-list of 
France. The minister says in his report : " The 
statesmen of France have determined to show that 
the country knows how to honor those who serve 
her, even in obscurity." 



210 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Since 1862, 10,243 libraries for the use of common 
schools have been established ; and they now con- 
tain 1,117,352 volumes, more than a third of which 
have been furnished by the imperial government. 
Half a million text-books are furnished for the use 
of children who are too poor to buy them. It is 
the policy of France to afford the means of educa- 
tion to every child in the empire. 

When we compare the conduct of other govern- 
ments with our own, we cannot accuse ourselves 
so much of illiberality as of reckless folly in the 
application of our liberality to the support of 
schools. No government has expended so much 
to so little purpose. To fourteen States alone 
we have given for the support of schools 83,000 
square miles of land, or an amount of territory 
nearly equal to two such States as Ohio. But 
how has this bountiful appropriation been applied? 
This chapter in our history has never been writ- 
ten. No member of this House or the Senate, no 
executive officer of the government, now knows, 
and no man ever did know, what disposition has 
been made of this immense bounty. This bill 
requires the Commissioner of Education to report 
to Congress what lands have been given to schools, 
and how the proceeds have been applied. If we 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 211 

are not willing to follow the example of our 
fathers in giving, let us, at least, have the evi- 
dence of the beneficial results of their liberality. 

Mr. Speaker, I have thus hurriedly and im- 
perfectly exhibited the magnitude of the interests 
involved in the education of American youth ; the 
peculiar condition of affairs which demand at this 
time an increase of our educational forces ; the 
failure of a majority of the States to establish 
school systems, the long struggles through which 
others have passed in achieving success ; and the 
humiliating contrast between the action of our 
government and those of other nations in refer- 
ence to education : but I cannot close without 
referring to the bearing of this measure upon the 
peculiar work of this Congress. 

When the history of the Thirty-ninth Congress 
is written, it will be recorded that two great ideas 
inspired it, and made their impress upon all its 
efforts ; viz., to build up free States on the ruins 
of slavery, and to extend to every inhabitant of 
the United States the rights and privileges of citi- 
zenship. 

Before the Divine Architect builded order out 
of chaos, he said, " Let there be light." Shall we 
commit the fatal mistake of building up free States 



212 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

without first expelling the darkness in which slave- 
ry had shrouded their people ? Shall we enlarge 
the boundaries of citizenship, and make no provis- 
ion to increase the intelligence of the citizen? 

I share most fully in the aspirations of this 
Congress, and give my most cordial support to 
its policy ; but I believe its work will prove a 
disastrous failure unless it makes the schoolmaster 
its ally, and aids him in preparing the children of 
the United States to perfect the work now begun. 

The stork is a sacred bird in Holland, and is 
protected by her laws, because it destroys those 
insects which would undermine the dikes, and let 
the sea again overwhelm the rich fields of the 
Netherlands. Shall this government do nothing 
to foster and strengthen those educational agencies 
which alone can shield the coming generations 
from ignorance and vice, and make it the impreg- 
nable bulwark of liberty and law ? 

I know that this is not a measure which is likely 
to attract the attention of those whose chief work 
is. to watch the political movements that affect the 
results of nominating conventions and elections. 
The mere politician will see in it nothing valuable, 
for the millions of children to be benefited by it 
can give him no votes. But I appeal to those 



THE NATIONAL BUREAU OP EDUCATION. 213 

who care more for the future safety and glory of 
this nation than for any mere temporary advan- 
tage, to aid in giving to education the public 
recognition and active support of the Federal 
Government. 



II. 

National &fo to lEtmcatum. 

SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
FEB. 6, 1872. 



II. 

NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 1 

" The preservation of the means of knowledge among the 
lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the 
property of all the rich men in the country." — John Adams's 
Works, Vol. III., p. 457. 

"That all education should be in the hands of a centralized 
authority, . . . and be consequently all framed on the same 
model, and directed to the perpetuation of the same type, is a 
state of things, which, instead of becoming more acceptable, will 
assuredly be more repugnant to mankind, with every step of 
their progress, in the unfettered exercise of their highest facul- 
ties."— " The Positive Philosophy of Augusle Cornte," p. 92: John 
Stuart Mill. 

IV/TR. SPEAKER, — In the few minutes given 
me, I shall address myself to two questions. 
The first is : What do we propose by this bill to 
give to the cause of education ? and the second is : 
How do we propose to give it ? Is the gift itself 
wise ? and is the mode in which we propose to give 

1 The House had under consideration House Bill No. 1,043, 
"To establish an Educational Fund, and to apply the Proceeds 
of the Public Lands to the Education of the People." 

217 



218 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

it wise ? This arrangement will include all I have 
to say. 

And, first, we propose, without any change in 
the present land policy, to give the net proceeds 
of the public lands to the cause of education. 
During the last fifteen years these proceeds have 
amounted to a little more than thirty-three million 
dollars, or one per cent of the entire revenues of 
the United States for that period. The gift is 
not great; but yet, in one view of the case, it is 
princely. To dedicate for the future a fund 
which is now one per cent of the revenues of the 
United States, to the cause of education, is, to 
my mind, a great thought, and I am glad to give 
it my indorsement. It seems to me, that, in this 
act of giving, we almost copy its prototype in 
what God himself has done on this great conti- 
nent of ours. In the centre of its greatest 
breadth, where otherwise there might be a desert 
forever, he has planted a chain of the greatest 
lakes on the earth ; and the exhalations arising 
from their pure waters every day come down in 
gracious showers, and make that a blooming 
garden which otherwise might be a desert waste. 
It is proposed that the proceeds arising from the 
sale of our great wilderness lands, like the dew, 






NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 219 

shall fall forever, not upon the lands but upon 
the minds of the children of the nation, giving 
them, for all time to come, all the blessing and 
growth and greatness that education can afford. 
That thought, I say it again, is a great one, 
worthy of a great nation; and this country will 
remember the man who formulated it into lan- 
guage, and will remember the Congress that made 
it law. 

The other point is one of even greater practical 
value and significance just now than this that I 
have referred to. It is this: How is this great 
gift to be distributed? We propose to give it, 
Mr. Speaker, through our American system of 
education ; and, in giving it, we do not propose 
to mar in the least degree the harmony and 
beauty of that system. If we did, I should be 
compelled to give my voice and vote against the 
measure ; and here and now, when we are in- 
augurating this policy, I desire to state for myself, 
and, as I believe, for many who sit around me, 
that we do here solemnly protest that this gift is 
not to destroy or disturb, but it is rather to be 
used through and as a part of, and to be wholly 
subordinated to, what I venture to call our great 
American system of education. On this question 



220 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

I have been compelled heretofore to differ with 
many friends of education, here and elsewhere, — 
many who have thought it might be wise for Con- 
gress, in certain contingencies, to take charge of 
the system of education in the States. I will not 
now discuss the constitutional aspects of that 
question ; but I desire to say that all the philoso- 
phy of our educational system forbids that we 
should take such a course. And, in the few mo- 
ments awarded to me, I wish to make an appeal 
for our system as a whole as against any other 
known to me. We look sometimes with great ad- 
miration at a government like Germany, that can 
command the light of its education to shine every- 
where, that can enforce its school-laws everywhere 
throughout the empire. Under our system we do 
not rejoice in •that, but we rather rejoice that here 
two forces play with all their vast power upon 
our system of education. The first is that of the 
local, municipal power under our State govern- 
ments. There is the centre of responsibility. . 
There is the chief educational power. There can i 
be enforced Luther's great thought of placing on 
magistrates the duty of educating children. 

Luther was the first to perceive that Christian 
schools were an absolute necessity. In a celebrat- 



NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 221 

ed paper addressed to the municipal councillors 
of the empire in 1524, he demanded the establish- 
ment of schools in all the villages of Germany. 
To tolerate ignorance was, in the energetic lan- 
guage of the reformer, to make common cause 
with the Devil. The father of a family who 
abandoned his children to ignorance was a con- 
summate rascal. Addressing the German authori- 
ties, he said, — 

"Magistrates, remember that God formally commands 
you to instruct children. This divine commandment par- 
ents have transgressed by indolence, by lack of intelligence, 
and because of overwork. 

" The duty devolves upon you, magistrates, to call fathers 
to their duty, and to prevent the return of these evils which 
we suffer to-day. Give attention to your children. Many 
parents are like ostriches, content to have laid an egg, but 
caring for it no longer. 

" Now, that which constitutes the prosperity of a city is 

not its treasures, its strong walls, its beautiful 1 mansions, 

and its brilliant decorations. The real wealth of a city, its 

j safety and its force, is an abundance of citizens, instructed, 

1 honest, and cultivated. If in our days we rarely meet such 

! citizens, whose fault is it, if not yours, magistrates, who 

have allowed our youth to grow up like neglected shrub- 

\ bery in the forest? 

" Ignorance is more dangerous for a people than the 
armies of an enemy." 



222 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

After quoting this passage from Luther, La- 
boulaye, in his eloquent essay entitled " L'Etat 
et ses Limites," 1 says, — 

" This familiar and true eloquence was not lost. There 
is not a Protestant country which has not placed in the 
front rank of its duties the establishment and maintenance 
of popular schools." 

The duties enjoined in these great utterances 
of Luther are recognized to the fullest extent by 
the American system. But they are recognized 
as belonging to the authorities of the State, the 
county, the township, the local communities. 
There these obligations may be urged with all 
the strength of their high sanctions. There may 
be brought to bear all the patriotism, all the mo- 
rality, all the philanthropy, all the philosophy, of 
our people ; and there it is brought to bear in its 
noblest and best forms. 

But there is another force, even greater than 
that of the State and the local governments. It 
is the force of private voluntary enterprise, — that 
force which has built up the multitude of private 
schools, academies, and colleges throughout the 
United States, not always wisely, but always 

i Pp. 204, 205. 



NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 223 

with enthusiasm and wonderful energy. I say, 
therefore, that our local self-government, joined 
to and co-operating with private enterprise, has 
made the American system of education what 
it is. 

In further illustration of its merits, I beg leave 
to allude to a few facts of great significance. 
The governments of Europe are now beginning 
to see that our system is better and more effi- 
cient than theirs. The public mind of England 
is now, and has been for several years, profoundly 
moved on the subject of education. Several 
commissioners have lately been sent by the Brit- 
ish Government to examine the school systems 
of other countries, and lay before Parliament 
the results of their investigations, so as to enable 
that body to profit by the experience of other 
nations. 

Rev. J. Frazier, one of the assistant commis- 
sioners appointed for this purpose, visited this 
country in 1865, and in the following year made 
his report to Parliament. While he found much 
to criticise in our system of education, he did 
not withhold his expressions of astonishment at 
the important part which private enterprise 
played in our system. In concluding his report, 



224: PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

he speaks of the United States as "a nation of 
which it is no flattery or exaggeration to say, that 
it is, if not the most highly, yet certainly the 
most generally, educated and intelligent people 
on the globe." 

But a more valuable report was delivered to 
Parliament in 1868, by Matthew Arnold, one of 
the most cultivated and profound thinkers of 
England. He was sent by Parliament to examine 
the schools and universities of the Continent ; 
and after visiting all the leading states of 
Europe, and making himself thoroughly familiar 
with their system of education, he delivered a 
most searching and able report. In the conclud- 
ing chapter, he discusses the wants of England 
on the subject of education. No one who reads 
that chapter can fail to admire the boldness and 
power with which he points out the chief ob- 
stacles to popular education in England. He 
exhibits the significant fact, that, while during 
the last half-century there has been a general 
transformation in the civil organization of Euro- 
pean governments, England, with all her liberty 
and progress, is shackled with what he calls a 
civil organization, which is, from the top to the 
bottom of it, not modern. He says, — 



NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 225 

« Transform she must, unless she means to come at last 
to the same sentence as the church of Sardis : ' Thou hast 
a name that thou livest, and art dead.' 

" However, on no part of this immense task of transfor- 
mation have I now to touch, except on that part which 
relates to education; but this part, no doubt, is the most 
important of all, and it is the part whose happy accomplish- 
ment may render that of all the rest, instead of being- 
troubled and difficult, gradual and easy. . . . 

"Obligatory instruction is talked of. But what is the 
capital difficulty in the way of obligatory instruction, or, 
indeed, any national system of instruction, in this country ? 
It is this : that, the moment the working-class of this coun- 
try have this question of instruction really brought home to 
them, their self-respect will make them demand, like the 
working-classes on the Continent, public schools, and not 
schools which the clergyman or the squire or the mill-owner 
calls ' my school ! ' And what is the capital difficulty in the 
way of giving them public schools ? It is this : that the 
public school for the people must rest upon the municipal 
organization of the country. In France, Germany, Italy, 
Switzerland, the public elementary school has, and exists 
by having, the commune, and the municipal government of 
the commune, as its foundations ; and it could not exist with- 
out them. But we, in England, have our municipal organ- 
ization still to get: the country districts with us have at 
present only the feudal and ecclesiastical organization of the 
Middle Ages, or of France before the Revolution. . . . 

" The real preliminary to an effective system of popular 
education is, in fact, to provide the country with an effective 



226 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

municipal organization ; and here, then, is, at the outset, an 
illustration of what I said, — that modern societies need a 
civil organization which is modern." 

In the early part of 1870 a report was made to 
the Minister of Public Instruction by Mr. C. 
Hippeau, a man of great learning, and who, in the 
previous year, had been ordered by the French 
Government to visit the United States, and make 
a careful study of our system of public education. 
In summing up his conclusions at the end of his 
report, he expresses opinions which are remark- 
able for their boldness, when we remember the 
character of the French government at that time ; 
and his recommendations have a most significant 
application to the principle under consideration. 
I translate his concluding paragraphs : — 

" What impresses me most strongly as the result of this 
study of public instruction in the United States is the ad- 
mirable power of private enterprise in a country where the 
citizens early adopted the habit of foreseeing their own 
wants for themselves ; of meeting together and acting in 
concert ; of combining their means of action ; of determin- 
ing the amount of pecuniary contribution which they will 
impose upon themselves, and of regulating its use ; and, 
finally, of choosing administrators who shall render them an 
account of the resources placed at their disposal, and of the 
use which they may make of their authority. 



NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 227 

" The marvellous progress made in the United States 
during the last twenty years would have been impossible 
if the national life, instead of being manifested on all points 
of the surface, had been concentrated in a capital, under the 
pressure of a strongly organized administration, which, hold- 
ing the people under constant tutelage, wholly relieved them 
from the care of thinking and acting by themselves and for 
themselves. Will France enter upon that path of decen- 
tralization, which will infallibly result in giving a scope 
now unknown to all her vital forces and to the admirable 
resources which she possesses? In what especially con- 
cerns public instruction, shall we see her multiplying, as 
in America, those free associations, those generous dona- 
tions, which will enable us to place public instruction on 
the broadest foundation, and to revive in our provinces 
the old universities that will become more nourishing 
as the citizens shall interest themselves directly in their 
progress ? 

"To accomplish this, it will also be necessary that 
governments, appreciating the wants of their epoch, shall 
with good grace relinquish a part of the duties now imposed 
upon them, and aid the people in supporting the rigid 
regime of liberty, by enlarging the powers of the muni- 
cipal councils and of the councils of the departments, by 
favoring associations and public meetings, by opening the 
freest field to the examination and discussion of national 
interests; in short, by deserving the eulogy addressed 
by a man of genius to a great minister of France : ' Mon- 
seigneur, you have labored ten years to make yourself 
useless. 



t >> 



228 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

I have made these citations to show how strong- 
ly the public thought of Europe is moving toward 
our system of public education, as better and 
freer than theirs. I do not now discuss the 
broader political question of State and municipal 
government as contrasted with centralized govern- 
ment. I am considering what is the best system 
of organizing the educational work of a nation, 
not from the political standpoint alone, but from 
the standpoint of the schoolhouse itself. This 
work of public education partakes in a peculiar 
way of the spirit of the human mind in its efforts 
for culture. The mind must be as free from 
extraneous control as possible, — must work under 
the inspiration of its own desires for knowledge ; 
and, while instructors and books are necessary 
helps, the fullest and highest success must spring 
from the power of self-help. 

So the best system of education is that which 
draws its ehief support from the voluntary effort 
of the community, from the individual efforts of 
citizens, and from those burdens of taxation which 
they voluntarily impose upon themselves. The 
assistance proposed in this bill is to be given 
through the channels of this, our American sys- 
tem. The amount proposed is large enough to 






NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 229 

stimulate to greater effort and to general emula- 
tion the different States and the local school au- 
thorities, but not large enough to carry the system 
on, and to weaken all these forces by making the 
friends of education feel that the work is done for 
them without their own effort. Government shall 
be only a help to them, rather than a commander, 
in the work of education. 

In conclusion, I say, that, in the pending bill, 
we disclaim any control over the educational sys- 
tem of the States. We only require reports of 
what they do with our bounty ; and those reports, 
brought here and published for the information 
of the people, will spread abroad the light, and 
awaken the enthusiasm and emulation of our peo- 
ple. This policy is in harmony with the act of 
1867 creating the Bureau of Education, and whose 
fruits have already been so abundant in good re- 
sults. I hope that the House will set its seal 
of approval on our American system of educa- 
tion, and will adopt this mode of advancing and 
strengthening it. 



III. 



Suffrage anti j&cfjoote. 

EXTRACT FROM "THE FUTURE OF THE REPUBLIC: ITS 

DANGERS AND HOPES." AN ADDRESS DELIVERED 

BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF 

WESTERN RESERVE COLLEGE, 

HUDSON, 0., JULY 2, 1873. 



ni. 

SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 

A FTER all, territory is but the body of a 
-£-*- nation. The people who inhabit its hills 
and its valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life. In 
them dwells its hope of immortality. Among 
them, if anywhere, are to be found its chief 
elements of destruction. And this leads me to 
consider an alleged danger to our institutions, 
which, if well founded, would be radical and 
fatal. I refer to the allegation that universal 
suffrage as the supreme source of political au- 
thority is a fatal mistake. When I hear this 
proposition urged, I feel, as most Americans 
doubtless do, that it is a kind of moral treason to 
listen to it, and that to entertain it would be po- 
litical atheism. That the consent of the governed 
is the only true source of national authority, and is 
the safest and firmest foundation on which to build 
a government, is the most fundamental axiom of 
our political faith. But we must not forget that 

233 



234 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

a majority — perhaps a large majority — of the 
thinkers, writers, and statesmen of Christendom 
declare that our axiom is no axiom; indeed, is 
not true, but is a delusion and a snare, — a fatal 
heresy. 

At the risk of offending our American pride, I 
shall quote a few paragraphs from what is prob- 
ably the most formidable indictment ever penned 
against the democratic principle. It was written 
by the late Lord Macaulay, a profound student of 
society and government, and a man who on most 
subjects entertained broad and liberal views. 
Millions of Americans have read and admired his 
History and Essays ; but only a few thousands 
have read his brief but remarkable letter of 1857, 
in which he discusses the future of our govern- 
ment. We are so confident of our position, that 
we seldom care to debate it. 

The letter was addressed to the Hon. H. S. 
Randall of New York, acknowledging the receipt 
of a copy of that gentleman's " Life of Jefferson." 
I quote a few paragraphs : — 

" London, May 23, 1857. 
" Dear Sir, — You are surprised to learn that I have not 
a high opinion of Mr. Jefferson, and I am surprised at your 
surprise. I am certain that I never wrote a line, and that I 



SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 235 

never in parliament, in conversation, or even on the hustings, 
— a place where it is the fashion to court the populace, — 
uttered a word indicating the opinion that the supreme 
authority in a state ought to be intrusted to the majority of 
citizens told by the head ; in other words, to the poorest and 
most ignorant part of society. I have long been convinced 
that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, 
destroy liberty or civilization, or both. 

" In Europe, where the population is dense, the effect of 
such institutions would be almost instantaneous. What 
happened lately in France is an example. In 1848 a pure 
democracy was established there. During a short time there 
was a strong reason to expect a general spoliation, a national 
bankruptcy, a new partition of the soil, a maximum of 
prices, a ruinous load of taxation laid on the rich for the 
purpose of supporting the poor in idleness. Such a system 
would, in twenty years, have made France as poor and as 
barbarous as the France of the Carlovingians. Happily the 
danger was averted ; and now there is a despotism, a silent 
tribune, an enslaved press, liberty is gone, but civilization 
has been saved. I have not the smallest doubt, that if we 
had a purely democratic government here the effect would 
be the same. Either the poor would plunder the rich, and 
civilization would perish, or order and property would be 
saved by a strong military government, and liberty would 
perish. You may think that your country enjoys an exemp- 
tion from these evils. I will frankly own to you that I am 
of a very different opinion. Your fate I believe to be certain, 
though it is deferred by a physical cause. As long as you 
have a boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your 



236 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

laboring population will be far more at ease than the labor- 
ing population of the Old World ; and while that is the case 
the Jeffersonian policy may continue to exist without caus- 
ing any fatal calamity. But the time will come when New 
England will be as thickly peopled as Old England. Wages 
will be as low, and will fluctuate as much, with you as with 
us. You will have your Manchesters and Birminghams. 
Hundreds and thousands of artisans will assuredly be some- 
times out of work. Then your institutions will be fairly 
brought to the test. Distress everywhere makes the laborer 
mutinous and discontented, and inclines him to listen with 
eagerness to agitators, who tell him that it is a monstrous 
iniquity that one man should have a million while another 
cannot get a full meal. In bad years there is plenty of 
grumbling here, and sometimes a little rioting. But it mat- 
ters little, for here the sufferers are not the rulers. The 
supreme power is in the hands of a class, numerous indeed, 
but select, of an educated class, of a class which is, and 
knows itself to be, deeply interested in the security of 
property and the maintenance of order. Accordingly the 
malcontents are firmly yet gently restrained. The bad 
time is got over without robbing the wealthy to relieve the 
indigent. The springs of national prosperity soon begin 
to flow again ; work is plentiful ; wages rise, and all is 
tranquillity and cheerfulness. I have seen England three 
or four times pass through such critical seasons as I have 
described. Through such seasons the United States will 
have to pass, in the course of the next century, if not of 
this. How will you pass through, them? I heartily wish 
you a good deliverance. But my reason and my wishes are 



SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 237 

at war, and I cannot help foreboding the worst. It is quite 
plain that your government will never be able to restrain a 
distressed and discontented majority. For with you the 
majority is the government, and has the rich, who are always 
a minority, absolutely at its mercy. The day will come 
when, in the State of New York, a multitude of people, none 
of whom has had more than half a breakfast, or expects to 
have more than half a dinner, will choose a legislature. Is 
it possible to doubt what sort of legislature will be chosen ? 
On one side is a statesman preaching patience, respect for 
vested rights, strict observance of public faith. On the 
other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalists 
and usurers, and asking why anybody should be permitted 
to drink champagne and to ride in a carriage while thousands 
of honest people are in want of necessaries ? Which of the 
two candidates is likely to be preferred by a workingman 
who hears his children cry for bread? I seriously appre- 
hend that you will, in some such season of adversity as I 
have described, do things which will prevent prosperity from 
returning ; that you will act like people in a year of scarcity, 
devour all the seed-corn, and thus make the next year a year, 
not of scarcity, but of absolute famine. There will be, I 
fear, spoliation. The spoliation will increase distress. The 
distress will produce fresh spoliation. There is nothing to 
stay you. Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor. As 
I said before, when society has entered on this downward 
progress, either civilization or liberty must perish. Either 
some Caesar or Xapoleon will seize the reins of government 
with a strong hand, or your Republic will be as fearfully 
plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth 



238 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

century as the Roman empire was in the fifth ; with this 
difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the 
Roman empire came from without, and that your Huns 
and Vandals will have been engendered within your country 
by your own institutions. 

"Thinking thus, of course I cannot reckon Jefferson 
among the benefactors of mankind." 

Certainly this letter contains food for serious 
thought, and it would be idle to deny that the 
writer has pointed out what may become serious 
dangers in our future. But the evils he complains 
of are by no means confined to democratic govern- 
ments, nor do they in the main grow out of popular 
suffrage. If they do, England herself has taken 
a dangerous step since Macaulay wrote. Ten 
years after the date of this letter, she extended 
the suffrage to eight hundred thousand of her 
workingmen, — a class hitherto ignored in politics ; 
and still later we have extended it to an ignorant 
and lately enslaved population of more than four 
millions. Whether for weal or for woe, enlarged 
suffrage is the tendency of all modern nations. I 
venture the declaration that this opinion of Mac- 
aulay is vulnerable on several grounds. 

In the first place, it is based upon a belief from 
which few if any British writers have been able to 



SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 239 

emancipate themselves ; viz., the belief that man- 
kind are born into permanent classes, and that in 
the main they must live, work, and die in the fixed 
class or condition in which they were born. It is 
hardly possible for a man reared in an aristocracy 
like that of England to eliminate this conviction 
from his mind, for the British empire is built upon 
it. Their theory of national stability is, that there 
must be a permanent class which shall hold in 
their own hands so much of the wealth, the privi- 
lege, and the political power of the kingdom, that 
they can compel the admiration and obedience of 
all other classes. 

At several periods of English history, there have 
been serious encroachments upon this doctrine ; 
but, on the whole, British phlegm has held to it 
sturdily, and still maintains it. The great voice- 
less class of day-laborers have made but little 
headway against the doctrine. The editor of a 
leading British magazine told me a few years ago, 
that, in twenty-five years of observation, he had 
never known a mere farm-laborer in England to 
rise above his class. 1 Some, he said, had done so 

1 This statement made a deep impression upon President 
Garfield's mind, and he often referred to it in speaking of the 
relative opportunities that England and America offer to the 



240 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

in manufactures, some in trade ; but in mere farm- 
labor, not one. The government of a country 
where such a fact is possible has much to answer 
for. 

We deny the justice or the necessity of keeping 
ninety-nine of the population in perpetual poverty 
and obscurity in order that the hundredth may be 
rich and powerful enough to hold the ninety -nine 
in subjection. Where such permanent classes 
exist, the conflict of which Macaulay speaks is in- 
evitable. And why? Not that men are inclined to 
fight the class above them ; but they fight any artifi- 
cial barrier which makes it impossible for them to 
enter that higher class, and become a part of it. 
We point to the fact, that in this country there are 
no classes in the British sense of that word, — no 
impassable barriers of caste. Now that slavery is 

boy born of a lowly condition. His own career is an impossibility 
in England. Said his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 
his Memorial Address, delivered at the Church of St. Mary's-in- 
the-Fields, London, Sept. 26,— 

"All this was calculated to enlist our sympathy; and then 
we were taught to trace a career such as England knows nothing 
of, and to wonder at the mode in which great men are formed in 
a country so like and yet so dissimilar from our own." 

His Grace then gave a rapid summary of the President's 
career, — the scholar, master, student, preacher, soldier, legisk 
tor, and President. 



SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 241 

abolished, we can truly say, that through our po- 
litical society there run no fixed horizontal strata 
through which none can pass upward. Our society 
resembles rather the waves of the ocean, whose 
every drop may move freely among its fellows, 
and may rise toward the light, until it flashes on 
the crest of the highest wave. 

Again, in depicting the dangers of universal 
suffrage, Macaulay leaves wholly out of the account 
the great counterbalancing force of universal edu- 
cation. He contemplates a government delivered 
over to a vast multitude of ignorant, vicious men, 
who have learned no self-control, who have never 
comprehended the national life, and who will wield 
the ballot solely for personal and selfish ends. If 
this were indeed the necessary condition of demo- 
cratic communities, it would be difficult, perhaps 
impossible, to escape the logic of Macaulay's letter. 
And here is a real peril, — the danger that we shall 
rely upon the mere extent of the suffrage as a 
national safeguard. We cannot safely, even for a 
moment, lose sight of the quality of the suffrage, 
which is more important than its quantity. 

We are apt to be deluded into false security by 
political catch-words, devised to natter rather than 
instruct. We have happily escaped the dogma of 



242 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

the divine right of kings. Let us not fall into the 
equally pernicious error that multitude is divine 
because it is a multitude. The words of our great 
publicist — the late Dr. Lieber, whose faith in 
republican liberty was undaunted — should never 
be forgotten. In discussing the doctrine of " Vox 
populi, vox Dei," he said, — 

"Woe to the country in which political hypocrisy first 
calls the people almighty, then teaches that the voice of the 
people is divine, then pretends to take a mere clamor for the 
true voice of the people, and lastly gets up the desired 
clamor ! " 1 

This sentence ought to be read in every political 
caucus : it would make an interesting and signifi- 
cant preamble to most of our political platforms. 
It is only when the people speak truth and justice 
that their voice can be called the " voice of God." 
Our faith in the democratic principle rests upon 
the belief that intelligent men will see that their 
highest political good is in liberty regulated by 
just and equal laws, and that, in the distribution 
of political power, it is safe to follow the maxim, 
" Each for all, and all for each." We confront the 
dangers of the suffrage by the blessings of univer- 

1 Civil Liberty, p. 415. 



SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 243 

sal education. We believe that the strength of 
the State is the aggregate strength of its individual 
citizens, and that the suffrage is the link that binds 
in a bond of mutual interest and responsibility the 
fortunes of the citizen to the fortunes of the State\ 

Hence, as popular suffrage is the broadest base, 
so when coupled with intelligence and virtue it 
becomes the strongest, the most enduring base, 
on which to build the superstructure of govern- 
ment. 

Our great hope for the future, — our great safe- 
guard against danger, — is to be found in the gen- 
eral and thorough education of our people, and 
in the virtue which accompanies such education. 
And all these elements depend in a large measure 
upon the intellectual and moral culture of the 
young men who go out from our higher institu- 
tions of learning. From the standpoint of this 
general culture we may trustfully encounter the 
perils that assail us. Secure against clangers 
from abroad; united at home by the strongest 
ties of common interest and patriotic pride ; hold- 
ing and unifying our vast territory by the most 
potent forces of civilization; relying upon the 
intelligent strength and responsibility of each 
citizen, and most of all upon the power of truth, 



244 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 



— without undue arrogance, we may hope that in 
the centuries to come, our Republic will continue 
to live, and hold its high place among the nations 
as 

" The heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time." 



IV. 



Popular lEoucatfon. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE AND 

THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS, JULY 12, 1880, 

AND MARCH 4, 1881. 



IV. 

POPULAR EDUCATION. 

"^TEXT in importance to freedom and justice 
is popular education, without which neither 
freedom nor justice can be permanently main- 
tained. Its interests are intrusted to the States 
and to the voluntary action of the people. What- 
ever help the nation can justly afford should be 
generously given to aid the States in supporting 
common schools ; but it would be unjust to our 
people, and dangerous to our institutions, to apply 
any portion of the revenues of the nation, or of 
the States, to the support of sectarian schools. 
The separation of the Church and the State on 
every thing relating to taxation should be abso- 
lute. 

But the danger which arises from ignorance in 
the voter cannot be denied. It covers a field far 
wider than that of negro suffrage and the present 
condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks 

247 



248 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

and hides in the sources and fountains of power 
in every State. We have no standard by which 
to measure the disaster that may be brought up- 
on us by ignorance and vice in the citizen when 
joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage. 

The voters of the Union, who make and un- 
make constitutions, and upon whose will hang the 
destinies of our governments, can transmit their 
supreme authority to no successors save the com- 
ing generation of voters, who are the sole heirs of 
sovereign power. If that generation comes to its 
inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted 
by vice, the fall of the Republic will be certain 
and remediless. The census has already sounded 
the alarm in the appalling figures which mark how 
dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen 
among our voters and their children. To the 
South this question is of supreme importance. 
But the responsibility for the existence of slavery 
does not rest upon the South alone. The nation 
itself is responsible for the extension of the suf- 
frage, and is under special obligations to aid in 
removing the illiteracy which it has added to the 
voting population. For the North and South alike, 
there is but one remedy. All the constitutional 
power of the Nation and of the States, and all the 



POPULAR EDUCATION. 249 

volunteer forces of the people, should be sum- 
moned to meet this danger by the saving influence 
of universal education. 

It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those 
now living to educate their successors, and fit 
them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inherit- 
ance which awaits them. 

In this beneficent work sections and races should 
be forgotten, and partisanship should be unknown. 
Let our people find a new meaning in the divine 
oracle which declares that "A little child shall 
lead them ; " for our own little children will soon 
control the destinies of the Republic. 

My countrymen, we do not now differ in our 
judgment concerning the controversies of past gen- 
erations, and fifty years hence our children will 
not be divided in their opinions concerning our 
controversies. They will surely bless their fathers 
and their fathers' God that the Union was pre- 
served, that slavery was overthrown, and that 
both races were made equal before the law. We 
may hasten or we may retard, but we cannot pre- 
vent, the final reconciliation. Is it not possible 
for us now to make a truce with time by antici- 
pating and accepting its inevitable verdict ? 

Enterprises of the highest importance to our 



250 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

moral and material well-being invite us, and offer 
ample employment for our best powers. Let all 
our people, leaving behind them the battle-fields 
of dead issues, move forward, and, in the strength 
of liberty and the restored Union, win the grander 
victories of peace. 






V. 

Qfyt ©fet of tfte •• Southern Question." 

REPLY MADE AT MENTOR TO A DELEGATION OF COLORED 

CITIZENS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA AND 

OTHER SOUTHERN STATES, 

JAN. 14, 1881. 



V. 

THE GIST OF THE "SOUTHERN QUESTION." 

pi ENERAL ELLIOTT AND GENTLEMEN, 
V^ — I thank you for your congratulations on 
the successful termination of the campaign re- 
cently closed, and especially for your kind allu- 
sion to me personally for the part I bore in that 
campaign. What I have done, what I have said 
concerning your race and the great problem that 
your presence on this continent has raised, I have 
said as a matter of profound conviction, and hold 
to with all the meaning of the words employed in 
expressing it. 

What you have said in regard to the situation 
of your people, the troubles that they encounter, 
the evils from which they have suffered and still 
suffer, I have listened to with deep attention, and 
shall give' it the full measure of reflection. This 
is not the time or the place for me to indicate any 
thing as to what I shall have to say and do by 
and by in an official way. But this I may say : I 

253 



254 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

note as peculiarly significant one sentence in the 
remarks of General Elliott to the effect that a 
majority of citizens, as he alleges, in some portions 
of the South, are oppressed by the minority. If 
this be so, why is it so ? It is because a trained 
man is two or three men in one, in comparison 
with an untrained man ; and outside of politics, 
and outside of parties, the suggestion is full — 
brimful — of significance, that the way to make 
the majority always powerful over any minority 
is to make its members as trained and intelligent 
as is the minority itself. That brings the equality 
of citizenship ; and no law can reasonably confer 
and maintain, in the long-run, equality that is not 
upheld by culture and intelligence. Legislation 
ought to do all it can. 

I have made these suggestions, simply to indi- 
cate, that, in my judgment, the education of your 
race lies at the basis of the final solution of your 
great question, and that that cannot be altogether 
in the hands of the government. The govern- 
ment ought to do all it properly can ; but the na- 
tive hungering and thirsting for knowledge that 
the Creator has planted in every child must be 
cultivated by the parents of the child to the 
last possible degree of their ability, so that the 



THE GIST OF THE "SOUTHERN QUESTION." 255 

hands of the people shall reach out and grasp in 
the darkness the hand of the government extend- 
ing its help. By that union of effort, time will 
bring what mere legislation alone cannot immedi- 
ately bring in any locality. 

I rejoice that you have expressed so strongly 
and earnestly your views in regard to the neces- 
sity of your education. I have felt for years that 
that was the final solution, the final hope. Those 
efforts that are humble, and comparatively out of 
sight, are, in the long-run, the efforts that tell. I 
have sometimes thought that the men who sink 
the coffer-dam, and work for months in anchor- 
ing the great stones that make the solid abut- 
ments and piers, whose work is by and by en- 
tirely flooded by the water and out of sight, do 
not get their share of credit. The gaudy struct- 
ure of the bridge that rests on these piers, and 
across which the trains thunder, is the thing 
that strikes the eye of the general public. The 
sunken piers, the hard work, the additional 
growth, the building-up of industry and econo- 
my, all that can help to be the foundation of 
real prosperity, is the work that in the long-run 
tells. 

Some Scottish poet has said, or put it into the 



256 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

mouth of some other prophet to say, that the time 
would come 

" When Bertram right and Bertram might 
Shall meet on Ellengowan's height." 

And it is when the might and the right of the 
people meet, that majorities are never oppressed by 
minorities. 

Gentlemen, that you may take part in this 
earnest work of building up your race from the 
foundation into the solidity of intelligence and 
industry and strength, and upon those bases at 
last see all your rights recognized and acknowl- 
edged, is my personal wish and hope for your 
people. 






VI. 

S&elaticm of tfje National (feobzxnmznt U Science, 

SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
FEB. 11, 1879. 



VI. 



RELATION OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 
TO SCIENCE. 1 

nV/TR. CHAIRMAN, — I think it a misfortune 
**-*- that so important a measure as this is, is 
placed upon one of the annual appropriation bills. 
I have had occasion hitherto to characterize that 
method of legislation, and I think it is well illus- 
trated in this case. If it could have been avoided 
in any way, it ought, it seems to me, to have been 
avoided here. The subject embraced in the sec- 
tions which relate to the surveys of the public 
land should have been embodied in a separate bill, 
and subjected to the most careful scrutiny. But 
as the sections are here, and may be ruled in 

1 This speech was made in the Committee of the Whole 
upon the State of the Union, upon House Bill No. 640, making 
appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial ex- 
penses of the government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1880, and for other purposes. The immediate subject was the 
sections of the bill consolidating the geological and other sur- 
veys. 

259 



260 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

order, I offer a few suggestions upon their 
merits. 

I will say, however, that one subject provided 
for in these sections has had no other place in our 
laws except in appropriation bills, and probably 
cannot be ruled out on the point of order. I 
speak of those scientific surveys which for the 
last ten or twelve years have been supported by 
the government. I think I am right in saying 
that there is no independent statute touching 
them : all the legislation in regard to them is to 
be found in the appropriation bills. And what I 
shall say in the short time I propose to address 
the committee this morning, will relate chiefly to 
those surveys. 

It is of the utmost importance that whatever 
the United States undertakes to do in reference to 
science shall be done upon some well-understood, 
well-reasoned, and well-defined system. And I 
venture to ask the attention of the Committee of 
the Whole for a few minutes to some general 
views on the relation of the National Govern- 
ment to this subject. 

We are accustomed to hear it said that the 
great powers of government in this country are 
divided into two classes, — National powers and 



NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 261 

State powers. That is an incomplete classifica- 
tion. Our fathers carefully divided all govern- 
mental powers into three classes : one they gave 
to the States ; another, Nation ; but the third great 
class, comprising the most precious of all powers, 
they refused to confer upon the States or the 
Nation, but reserved to themselves. This third 
class of powers has been almost uniformly over- 
looked by men who have discussed the American 
system. 

My attention was called to this in a striking 
way not long since, in reading a speech of Bis- 
marck's before the Reichstag of Germany. A 
proposition was pending to grant some political 
rights to the Jews in the German empire. Bis- 
marck opposed it; and in doing so he took occa- 
sion to state what, in his view, was the primary 
object of the Prussian government ; and I was 
startled at the statement : — 

" All gentlemen around me will admit," said he, "that 
the primary object of the Prussian government is to main- 
tain and defend the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. How, 
then, can one who disbelieves in Christ be properly admitted 
as a sharer of power in this kingdom? " 

I was struck with the fact that the great states- 
man of Germany — probably the foremost man in 



262 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Europe to-day — stated as an unquestioned prin- 
ciple, that the support, defence, and propagation 
of the Christian gospel is the central object of 
the German government. Then I considered, in 
contrast with that, the peculiarity of our own 
government. Our fathers, though recognizing, in 
common with Germany and the other Christian 
nations of the earth, the supreme importance of 
religion among men, deliberately turned to the 
great nation they were to establish, and said, 
" You shall never make any law about religion ; " 
and to the States they virtually said, " You shall 
never make any law establishing any form of reli- 
gion." In other words, here was an interest too 
precious to be trusted, either to the Nation or to 
the States. Our fathers said, " This highest of all 
human interests we will reserve to the people 
themselves. We will not delegate our power over 
it to any organized government, State or National. 
We will not even allow legislatures to make any 
law concerning it." 

To my mind, it is the sublimest fact in our 
American system, that, in denning the boundaries 
of delegated powers, they chose to intrust the 
most precious of all the interests of human beings 
on this earth absolutely to the voluntary action 



NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 263 

of the individual people of the Republic, not to 
be voted upon by their representatives, but to be 
regulated, protected, and cherished by their own 
voluntary action, leaving themselves perfectly free 
to have no religion if they chose, or any religion 
that they pleased. Thus they exhibited their 
regard for liberty, their faith in the voluntary 
action of the people, and their belief that the most 
precious interests would be safest under the im- 
mediate guardianship of freemen. In my view, 
we have spent too much time in discussing State 
sovereignty and National supremacy, and have 
neglected to recognize and appreciate the vast 
importance of the reserved rights of the people. 

It is a safe and wise rule to follow in all legis- 
lation, that whatever the people can do without 
legislation will be better done by them than by 
the intervention of the State or the Nation. 

What I have said in reference to religion ap- 
plies with almost equal force to science. In the 
main, the framers of our government trusted 
science to the same jurisdiction to which they 
intrusted religion. With the single exception of 
one clause in the Constitution authorizing Con- 
gress to promote science by granting copyrights 
and patents, the chief support and maintenance 



264 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

of science are left, and I think wisely left, to the 
voluntary action of our people ; and this was 
done, not in the interest of liberty alone, but in 
the interest of science itself. 

This leads me to inquire, What ought to be the 
relation of the National Government to science? 
What, if any thing, ought we to do in the way 
of promoting science ? For example, if we have 
the power, would it be wise for Congress to ap- 
propriate money out of the treasury to employ 
naturalists to find out all that is to be known of 
our American birds ? Ornithology is a delightful 
and useful study ; but would it be wise for Congress 
to make an appropriation for the advancement of 
that science? In my judgment, manifestly not. 
We would thereby make one favored class of men 
the rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their 
private way, following the bent of their genius, 
may be working out the results of science in that 
field. I have no doubt that an appropriation out 
of our treasury for that purpose would be a posi- 
tive injury to the advancement of science, just as 
an appropriation to establish a church would work 
injury to religion. 

Generally the desire of our scientific men is to 
be let alone, to work in free competition with all 



NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 265 

the scientific men of the world ; to develop their 
own results, and get the credit of them each for 
himself ; not to have the government enter the 
lists as the rival of private enterprise. 

As a general principle, therefore, the United 
States ought not to interfere in matters of science, 
but should leave its development to the free, 
voluntary action of our third great estate, — the 
people themselves. 

In this non-interference theory of the govern- 
ment, I do not go to the extent of saying that we 
should do nothing for education, — for primary 
education. That comes under another considera- 
tion, — the necessity of the nation to protect itself, 
and the consideration that it is cheaper and wiser 
to give education than to build jails. But I am 
speaking now of the higher sciences. 

To the general principle I have stated, there 
are a few obvious exceptions, which should be 
clearly understood when we legislate on the sub- 
ject. In the first place, the government should 
aid all sorts of scientific inquiry that are necessary 
to the intelligent exercise of its own functions. 

For example, as we are authorized by the Con- 
stitution, and compelled by necessity, to build and 
maintain light-houses on our coast, and establish 



266 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary 
scientific inquiries in reference to light and its 
laws, sound and its laws, — to do whatever in the 
way of science is necessary to achieve the best 
results in lighting our coasts and warning our 
mariners of danger. So, when we are building 
iron-clads for our navy, or casting guns for our 
army, we ought to know all that is scientifically 
possible to be known about the strength of ma- 
terials and the laws of mechanics which apply to 
such structure. In short, wherever, in exercising 
any of the necessary functions of the government, 
scientific inquiry is needed, let us make it to the 
fullest extent, and at the public expense. 

There is another exception to the general rule 
of leaving science to the voluntary action of the 
people. Wherever any great popular interest, 
affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the 
community, imperatively needs scientific investiga- 
tion, and private enterprise cannot accomplish it, 
we may wisely intervene and help where the Con- 
stitution gives us authority. For example, in 
discovering the origin of yellow-fever, and the 
methods of preventing its ravages, the Nation 
should do, for the good of all, what neither the 
States nor individuals can accomplish. I might 



NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 267 

perhaps include, in a third exception, those in- 
quiries which, in consequence of their great mag- 
nitude and cost, cannot be successfully made by 
private individuals. Outside these three classes 
of inquiries, the government ought to keep its 
hands off, and leave scientific experiment and 
inquiry to the free competition of those bright, 
intelligent men whose genius leads them into the 
fields of research. 

And I suspect, when we read the report of our 
Commissioner to the late Paris Exposition, which 
shows such astonishing results, so creditable to 
our country, so honorable to the genius of our 
people, it will be found in any final analysis of 
causes, that the superiority of Americans in that 
great exposition resulted mainly from their supe- 
rior freedom, and the greater competition between 
mind and mind, untrammelled by government in- 
terference. I believe it will be found we are best 
serving the cause of religion and science, and all 
those great primary rights which we did not dele- 
gate to the Congress or the States, but left the 
people free to enjoy and maintain them. 

Mr. Chairman, leaving these general reflections, 
I come to the special question of our geological 
surveys. Leaving out of the account all the 



268 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

government works proper, such as light-houses, 
such as the survey of our coast, such as the 
survey of our rivers and harbors, such as the 
surveys of the lakes, of military surveys proper, 
— leaving all these out, we have spent almost two 
million dollars in the last twelve years for purely 
scientific surveys. While the results have been 
very gratifying, while they have been exceedingly 
interesting to men of science, and also of com- 
mercial value to the country, I believe we have 
spent a large part of that money upon an unwise 
system, and in a way which has tended to dis- 
courage the private pursuit of science by our 
people. 

We have made the government a formidable 
and crushing competitor of private students of 
science ; and I think we have, in some cases, gone 
beyond the fair limit of what the government 
ought to do in the way of scientific investigation. 
We have had the War Department, with two or 
three separate expeditions, exploring our Western 
territory ; we have had two separate organiza- 
tions from the Interior Department, also exploring : 
and it has all been done on a system which has 
invited and fostered a personal seeking of favor 
from Congress. There have been good men, intel- 



NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 269 

ligent men, scientific men, who have sought for 
authority and aid to- make scientific investigations 
in fields which private citizens were exploring; 
and in employing so many separate and independ- 
ent parties, there have been many cases, if not of 
collision, at least of overlapping and duplication, 
in the same field of examination. It seems to me 
it is high time for us, first, to restrict our scientific 
work plainly and narrowly within the limits of 
the rules I have tried to lay down ; and, second, 
to consolidate the scientific part of our work of 
survey under one responsible head, and, having 
done that, with all the economy which can be 
fairly used, let us make our outlay only in the 
direction of public necessity. 

Now, lest some one should think I am attacking 
the geological surveys, I hasten to say that it is 
absolutely vital to an intelligent discharge of our 
duties as trustees, or rather as owners, of the 
great public domain yet unsurveyed and unsold, 
to give to our people all the light that science 
can shed upon the character and quality of those 
lands. 

While I may doubt the propriety of making 
at once the whole change proposed in this bill, it 
is perfectly clear to my mind that we have reached 



270 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

a natural crisis in the management and disposition 
of our public domain. We have now reached the 
foot-hills of the great Rocky-Mountain chain ; and 
the old plans, the old methods, both of survey 
and of settlement, are in the main no longer 
applicable. Of what possible use can it be to 
checkerboard the slopes and the tops of moun- 
tains that are full of ores with the old system of 
sections, half-sections, and quarter-sections ? 

To say that the old plan has worked well for a 
hundred years, is to praise our past properly ; but 
to say that the same plan will work well for the 
next hundred years, is to say the match-locks, 
gun-flints, the spontoons, and other nameless and 
obsolete implements of war, that were in vogue a 
hundred years ago, will be good for a hundred 
years to come, and should not be abandoned. 
We must not revolutionize merely for the sake 
of change ; but we must wisely and intelligently 
adapt our policy to the progress of events ; and 
I believe it has been clearly shown, that, if the 
old rectangular system is continued, it will be 
substantially worthless in its application to most 
of our unsurveyed territory. 

Mr. Keifer. It never was applied to them. 

Mr. Garfield. We do not want it to be. 



NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 271 

Mr. Keifer. And it never will be. 

Mr. Garfield. But I am confining what I 
say to-day almost exclusively to that clause of the 
bill which relates to the scientific surveys. As 
regards the land-surveys, I confess I have not 
studied that subject so fully as some of the gen- 
tlemen around me. 

Mr. Page. May I ask the gentleman a ques- 
tion ? 

Mr. Garfield. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Page. I ask the gentleman from Ohio if 
he is not aware that the amendment of which he 
is now speaking is directly in violation of, or 
changes, existing law, and makes an appropriation 
for an additional officer not now known to the 
law? and whether he is in favor of new legisla- 
tion on an appropriation bill? 

•Mr. Garfield. I said in the outset of my 
remarks, that I am opposed to that mode of 
legislation, and that I regret for that reason that 
this provision is here and not in a bill by itself. 
My record is too well known to leave any doubt 
on that subject. 

I say this: Let us consolidate these scientific 
explorations and surveys, and unite them under 
one head, and not scatter them as we have done 



272 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

hitherto, and waste money, and duplicate work, 
and make the name of science ridiculous in the 
United States. As to the other parts of these 
sections, let us at least make an arrangement, if 
we do no more, by which we shall have a full and 
complete report upon the whole subject, so that 
we may make these changes soon if not now. 

In this hurried way I have said nearly all I 
intended to say, except to call attention to one 
other point. Besides going too far in scientific 
explorations, we have greatly wronged the scien- 
tific publication societies of this country. I sup- 
pose some gentlemen may not know that there are 
twenty-seven voluntary scientific associations in 
this country that publish their proceedings, be- 
sides five or six journals specially devoted to pub- 
lishing the discoveries of science. 

These are a part of the means by which discov- 
eries in science can find their way to the public 
through the press ; and yet we are printing thou- 
sands of volumes in competition with the private 
associations of the country, and thereby injuring 
and crippling them. I believe we ought simply 
to confine ourselves to our own business, and not 
needlessly travel into their field. Without very 
much reflection, and in a manner quite unsatis- 



NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 273 

factory to myself, I have offered these suggestions. 
If I have stimulated any one to do the subject 
better justice, I shall not altogether have failed 
of my purpose. 



VII. 

College ISoucatum. 

AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF THE 

ECLECTIC INSTITUTE, HIRAM, O., 

JUNE 14, 1867. 



vn. 

COLLEGE EDUCATION. 

/^i ENTLEMEN OF THE LITERARY SO- 
^T CIETIES, — I congratulate you on the sig- 
nificant fact, that the questions which most vitally 
concern your personal work, are at this time 
rapidly becoming, indeed have already become, 
questions of first importance to the whole nation. 
In ordinary times, we could scarcely find two sub- 
jects wider apart than the meditations of a school- 
boy, when he asks what he shall do with himself, 
and how he shall do it, and the forecastings of a 
great nation, when it studies the laws of its own 
life, and endeavors to solve the problem of its 
destiny. But now there is more than a resem- 
blance between the nation's work and yours. If 
the two are not identical, they at least bear the 
relation of the whole to a part. 

The nation, having passed through the child- 
hood of its history, and being about to enter upon 
a new life, based on a fuller recognition of the 

277 



278 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

rights of manhood, has discovered that liberty can 
be safe only when the suffrage is illuminated by 
education. It is now perceived that the life and 
light of a nation are inseparable. Hence the 
Federal Government has established a National 
Department of Education, for the purpose of 
teaching young men and women how to be good 
citizens. 

You, young gentlemen, having passed the limits 
of childhood, and being about to enter the larger 
world of manhood, with its manifold struggles and 
aspirations, are now confronted with the question, 
" What must I do to fit myself most completely, 
not for being a citizen merely, but for being ' all 
that doth become a man,' living in the full light 
of the Christian civilization of America ? " Your 
disinthralled and victorious country asks you to 
be educated for her sake, and the noblest aspira- 
tions of your being still more imperatively ask it 
for your own sake. 

In the hope that I may aid you in solving 
some of these questions, I have chosen for my 
theme on this occasion : — " 

"The Course of Study in American Colleges, 
and its Adaptation to the Wants of our Time." 

Before examining any course of study, we 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 279 

should clearly apprehend the objects to be ob- 
tained by a liberal education. 

In general, it may be said that the purpose 
of all study is twofold, — to discipline our fac- 
ulties, and to acquire knowledge for the duties 
of life. It is happily provided in the consti- 
tution of the human mind, that the labor by 
which knowledge is acquired is the only means 
of disciplining the powers. It may be stated as 
a general rule, that if we compel ourselves to 
learn what we ought to know, and use it when 
learned, our discipline will take care of itself. 

Let us, then, inquire, What kinds of knowledge 
should be the objects of a liberal education? 
Without adopting in full the classification of Her- 
bert Spencer, it will be sufficiently comprehensive 
for my present purpose to propose the following 
kinds of knowledge, stated in the order of their 
importance : — 

First, That knowledge which is necessary for 
the full development of our bodies and the 
preservation of our health. 

Second, The knowledge of those principles by 
which the useful arts and industries are carried 
on and improved. 

Third, That knowledge which is necessary to 



280 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

a full comprehension of our rights and duties as 
citizens. 

Fourth, A knowledge of the intellectual, moral, 
religious, and sesthetic nature of man, and his 
relations to nature and civilization. 

Fifth, That special and thorough knowledge 
which is requisite for the particular profession or 
pursuit which a man may choose as his life-work 
after he has completed his college studies. 

In brief, the student should study himself, his rela- 
tions to society, to nature, and to art; and above all, 
in all, and through all these, he should study the rela- 
tions of himself, society, nature, and art, to God, the 
Author of them all. Of course it is not possible, 
nor is it desirable, to confine the course of devel- 
opment exclusively to this order ; for Truth is so 
related and correlated, that no department of her 
realm is wholly isolated. We cannot learn much 
that pertains to the industry of society, without 
learning something of the material worLd, and the 
laws which govern it. We cannot study nature 
profoundly without bringing ourselves into com- 
munion with the spirit of art, which pervades 
and fills the universe. But what I suggest is, 
that we should make the course of study conform 
generally to the order here indicated; that the 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 281 

student shall first study what he most needs to 
know; that the order of his needs shall be the 
order of his work. Now, it will not be denied, 
that from the day that the child's foot first presses 
the green turf till the day when, an old man, he 
is ready to be laid under it, there is not an hour 
in which he does not need to know a thousand 
things in relation to his body, — " what he shall 
eat, what he shall drink, and wherewithal he shall 
be clothed." Unprovided with that instinct which 
enables the lower animals to reject the noxious, 
and select the nutritive, man must learn even the 
most primary truth that ministers to his self- 
preservation. If parents were themselves suffi- 
ciently educated, most of this knowledge might 
be acquired at the mother's knee ; but, by the 
strangest perversion and misdirection of the edu- 
cational forces, these most essential elements of 
knowledge are more neglected than any other. 

School-committees would summarily dismiss the 
teacher who should have the good sense and cour- 
age to spend three days of each week with her 
pupils in the fields and woods, teaching them the 
names, peculiarities, and uses of rocks, trees, plants, 
and flowers, and the beautiful story of the animals, 
birds, and insects, which fill the world with life 



282 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

and beauty. They will applaud her for continu- 
ing to perpetrate that undefended and indefensible 
outrage upon the laws of physical and intellectual 
life, which keeps a little child sitting in silence, in 
a vain attempt to hold his mind to the words of a 
printed page, for six hours in a day. Herod was 
merciful, for he finished his slaughter of the inno- 
cents in a day ; but this practice kills by the sav- 
agery of slow torture. And what is the child 
directed to study? Besides the mass of words 
and sentences which he is compelled to memorize, 
not one syllable of which he understands, at eight 
or ten years of age he is set to work on English 
grammar, — one of the most complex, intricate, 
and metaphysical of studies, requiring a mind of 
much muscle and discipline to master it. Thus 
are squandered — nay, far worse than squandered 
— those thrice precious years, when the child is all 
ear and eye, when its eager spirit, with insatiable 
curiosity, hungers and thirsts to know the what 
and the why of the world and its wonderful furni- 
ture. We silence its sweet clamor by cramming its 
hungry mind with words, words, — empty, mean- 
ingless words. It asks for bread, and we give it a 
stone. It is to me a perpetual wonder that any 
child's love of knowledge survives the outrages of 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 283 

the schoolhouse. It would be foreign from my 
present purpose to consider further the subject of 
primary education ; but it is worthy your profound- 
est thought, for " out of it are the issues of life." 
That man will be a benefactor of his race who 
shall teach us how to manage rightly the first 
years of a child's education. I, for one, declare 
that no child of mine shall ever be compelled to 
study one hour, or to learn even the English 
alphabet, before he has deposited under his skin 
at least seven years of muscle and bone. 

What are our seminaries and colleges accom- 
plishing in the way of teaching, the laws of life 
and physical well-being? I should scarcely wrong 
them, were I to answer, Nothing : absolutely noth- 
ing. The few recitations which some of the col- 
leges require in anatomy and physiology, unfold 
but the alphabet of those subjects. The emphasis 
of college culture does not fall there. The gradu- 
ate has learned the Latin of the old maxim, "Mens 
sana in corpore sano ; " but how to strengthen the 
mind by the preservation of the body, he has never 
learned. He can read you in Xenophon's best 
Attic Greek, that Apollo flayed the unhappy Mar- 
syas, and hanged up his skin as a trophy ; but he 
has never examined the wonderful texture of his 



284 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

own skin, or the laws by which he may preserve 
it. He would blush, were he to mistake the place 
of a Greek accent, or put the ictus on the second 
syllable of Eolus ; but the whole circle " lib- 
eralium artium" so pompously referred to in 
his diploma of graduation, may not have taught 
him, as I can testify in an instance personally 
known to me, whether the jejunum is a bone, or 
the humerus an intestine. Every hour of study 
consumes a portion of his muscular and vital 
force. Every tissue of his body requires its ap- 
propriate nourishment, the elements of which are 
found in abundance in the various products of 
nature ; but he has never inquired where he shall 
find the phosphates and carbonates of lime for his 
bones, albumen and fibrine for his blood, and phos- 
phorus for his brain. His chemistry, mineralogy, 
botany, anatomy, and physiology, if thoroughly 
studied, would give all this knowledge ; but he 
has been intent on things remote and foreign, and 
has given but little heed to those matters which 
so nearly concern the chief functions of life. But 
the student should not be blamed. The great 
men of history have set him the example. Coper- 
nicus discovered and announced the true theory 
of the solar system a hundred years before the 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 285 

circulation of the blood was known. Though 
from the heart to the surface, and from the sur- 
face back to the heart, of every man of the race, 
some twenty pounds of blood had made the cir- 
cuit once every three minutes, yet men were look- 
ing so steadily away from themselves that they 
did not observe the wonderful fact. His habit 
of thought has developed itself in all the courses of 
college study. 

In the next place, I inquire, What kinds of 
knowledge are necessary for carrying on and im- 
proving the useful arts and industries of civilized 
life ? I am well aware of the current notion, that 
these muscular arts should stay in the fields and 
shops, and not invade the sanctuaries of learning. 
A finished education is supposed to consist mainly 
of literary culture. The story of the forges of the 
Cyclops, where the thunderbolts of Jove were 
fashioned, is supposed to adorn elegant scholarship 
more gracefully than those sturdy truths which 
are preaching to this generation in the wonders of 
the mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang 
of the iron-mills, and the other innumerable indus- 
tries, which, more than all other human agencies, 
have made our civilization what it is, and are des- 
tined to achieve wonders yet undreamed of. This 



286 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

generation is beginning to understand that educa- 
tion should not be forever divorced from indus- 
try, — that the highest results can be reached only 
when science guides the hand of labor. With what 
eagerness and alacrity is industry seizing every 
truth of science, and putting it in harness ! A 
few years ago Bessemer of England, studying the 
nice affinities between carbon and the metals, dis- 
covered that a slight change of combination would 
produce a metal possessing the ductility of iron 
and the compactness of steel, and which would 
cost but little more than common iron. One rail 
of this metal will outlast fifteen of the iron rails 
now in use. Millions of capital are already in- 
vested to utilize this thought of Bessemer's, which 
must soon revolutionize the iorn-manufacture of 
the world. 

Another example : The late war raised the price 
of cotton, and paper made of cotton rags. It was 
found that good paper could be manufactured 
from the fibre of soft wood ; but it was expensive 
and difficult to reduce to a pulp, without chopping 
the fibre in pieces. A Yankee mechanic, who had 
learned in the science of vegetable anatomy that 
a billet of wood was composed of millions of hol- 
low cylinders, many of them so small that only the 






COLLEGE EDUCATION. 287 

microscope could reveal them, and having learned 
also the penetrative and expansive power of steam, 
wedded these two truths in an experiment, which, 
if exhibited to Socrates, would have been declared 
a miracle from the gods. The experiment was 
very simple. Putting his block of wood in a 
strong box, he forced into it a volume of super- 
heated steam which made its way into the minut- 
est pore and cell of the wood. Then through a 
trap-door suddenly opened, the block was tossed 
out. The outside pressure being removed, the 
expanding steam instantly burst every one of the 
million tubes ; every vegetable flue collapsed, and 
his block of wood lay before him a mass of fleecy 
fibre, more delicate than the hand of man could 
make it. 

Machinery is the chief implement with which 
civilization does its work ; but the science of me- 
chanics is impossible without mathematics. 

But for her mineral resources, England would 
be only the hunting-park of Europe, and it is 
believed that her day of greatness will terminate 
when her coal-fields are exhausted. Our mineral 
wealth is a thousand times greater than hers ; and 
yet, without the knowledge of geology, mineralogy, 
metallurgy, and chemistry, our mines could be of 



288 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

but little value. Without a knowledge of as- 
tronomy, commerce on the sea is impossible ; and 
now at last it is being discovered that the greatest 
of all our industries, the agricultural, in which 
three-fourths of all our population are engaged, 
must call science to its aid, if it would keep up 
with the demands of civilization. I need not 
enumerate the extent and variety of knowledge, 
scientific and practical, which a farmer needs in 
order to reach the full height and scope of his 
noble calling. And what has our American system 
of education done for this controlling majority of 
the people ? I can best answer that question with 
a single fact. Notwithstanding there are in the 
United States one hundred and twenty thousand 
common schools and seven thousand academies 
and seminaries; notwithstanding there are two 
hundred and seventy-five colleges where young 
men may be graduated as bachelors and masters 
of the liberal arts, — yet in all these the people of 
the United States have found so little being done, 
or likely to be done, to educate men for the work 
of agriculture, that they have demanded, and at 
last have secured from their political servants in 
Congress, an appropriation sufficient to build and 
maintain, in each State of the Union, a college for 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 289 

the education of farmers. This great outlay 
would have been totally unnecessary, but for the 
stupid and criminal neglect of college, academic, 
and common-school boards of education to furnish 
that which the wants of the people require. The 
scholar and the worker must join hands, if both 
would be successful. 

I next ask, What studies are necessary to teach 
our young men and women the history and spirit 
of our government, and their rights and duties as 
citizens ? There is not now, and there never was 
on this earth, a people who have had so many and 
weighty reasons for loving their country, and 
thanking God for the blessings of civil and re- 
ligious liberty, as our own. And yet, seven years 
ago, there was probably less strong, earnest, open 
love of country in the United States than in any 
other nation of Christendom. It is true, that 
the gulf of anarchy and ruin into which treason 
threatened to plunge us, startled the nation as by 
an electric shock, and galvanized into life its dor- 
mant and dying patriotism. But how came it 
dormant and dying ? I do not hesitate to affirm, 
that one of the chief causes was our defective 
system of education. Seven years ago there was 
scarcely an American college in which more than 



290 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

four weeks out of the four-years' course were de- 
voted to studying the government and history of 
the United States. For this defect of our educa- 
tional system I have neither respect nor tolera- 
tion. It is far inferior to that of Persia three 
thousand years ago. The uncultivated tribes of 
Greece, Rome, Libya, and Germany, surpassed us 
in this respect. Grecian children were taught to 
reverence and emulate the virtues of their ances- 
tors. Our educational forces are so wielded as to 
teach our children to admire most that which is 
foreign and fabulous and dead. I have recently 
examined the catalogue of a leading New-Eng- 
land college, in which the geography and history 
of Greece and Rome are required to be studied 
five terms ; but neither the history nor the geogra- 
phy of the United States is named in the college 
course, or required as a condition of admission. 
Our American children must know all the classic 
rivers, from the Scamander to the Yellow Tiber; 
must tell you the length of the Appian Way, and 
of the canal over which Horace and Virgil sailed 
on their journey to Brundusium : but he may be 
crowned with baccalaureate honors without hav- 
ing;; heard, since his first moment of Freshman 
life, one word concerning the one hundred and 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 291 

twenty-two thousand miles of coast and river 
navigation, the six thousand miles of canal, and 
the thirty-five thousand miles of railroad, which 
indicate both the prosperity and the possibilities 
of his own country. 

It is well to know the history of those magnifi- 
cent nations whose origin is lost in fable, and 
whose epitaphs were written a thousand years 
ago ; but, if we cannot know both, it is far better 
to study the history of our own nation, whose 
origin we can trace to the freest and noblest aspi- 
rations of the human heart, — a nation that was 
formed from hardiest, purest, and most enduring 
elements of European civilization ; a nation that, 
by its faith and courage, has dared and accom- 
plished more for the human race in a single 
century than Europe accomplished in the first 
thousand years of the Christian era. The New- 
England township was the type after which our 
Federal Government was modelled ; yet it would 
be rare to find a college student who can make a 
comprehensive and intelligent statement of the 
municipal organization of the township in which 
he was born, and tell you by what officers its legis- 
lative, judicial, and executive functions are admin- 
istered. One-half of the time which is now almost 



292 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

wholly wasted in district schools on English gram- 
mar, attempted at too early an age, would be suf- 
ficient to teach our children to love the Republic, 
and to become its loyal and life-long supporters. 
After the bloody baptism from which the nation 
has arisen to a higher and nobler life, if this 
shameful defect in our system of education be not 
speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite 
contempt of future generations. I insist that it 
should be made an indispensable condition of 
graduation in every American college, that the 
student must understand the history of this conti- 
nent since its discovery by Europeans ; the origin 
and history of the United States, its constitution 
of government, the struggles through which it has 
passed, and the rights and duties of citizens who 
are to determine its destiny and share its glory. 

Having thus gained the knowledge which is 
necessary to life, health, industry, and citizenship, 
the student is prepared to enter a wider and 
grander field of thought. If he desires that large 
and liberal culture which will call into activity all I 
his powers, and make the most of the material 
God has given him, he must study deeply and; 
earnestly the intellectual, the moral, the religious, 
and the aesthetic nature of man : his relations to 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 293 

nature, to civilization past and present ; and, 
above all, his relations to God. These should 
occupy, nearly, if not fully, half the time of his 
college course. In connection with the philosophy 
of the mind, he should study logic, the pure mathe- 
matics, and the general laws of thought. In con- 
nection with moral philosophy, he should study 
political and social ethics, a science so little 
known either in colleges or congresses. Prominent 
among all the rest, should be his study of the 
wonderful history of the human race, in its slow 
and toilsome march across the centuries, — now 
buried in ignorance, superstition, and crime ; now 
rising to the sublimity of heroism, and catching a 
glimpse of a better destiny ; now turning remorse- 
lessly away from, and leaving to perish, empires 
and civilizations in which it had invested its faith 
and courage and boundless energy for a thousand 
years, and plunging into the forests of Germany, 
■Gaul, and Britain, to build for itself new empires, 



better fitted for its new aspirations ; and at last 
crossing three thousand miles of unknown sea, 
and building in the wilderness of a new hemi- 
sphere its latest and proudest monuments. To 
know this as it ought to be known, requires not 
only a knowledge of general history, but a 



294 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

thorough understanding of such works as Guizot's 
" History of Civilization" and Draper's " Intel- 
lectual Development of Europe," and also the 
rich literature of ancient and modern nations. 

Of course, our colleges cannot be expected to 
lead the student through all the paths of this 
great field of learning ; but they should at least 
point out its boundaries, and let him taste a few 
clusters from its richest vines. 

Finally, in rounding up the measure of his 
work, the student should crown his education 
with that aesthetic culture which will unfold to 
him the delights of nature and art, and make his 
mind and heart a fit temple where the immortal 
spirit of Beauty may dwell forever. 

While acquiring this kind of knowledge, the 
student is on a perpetual voyage of discovery, — 
searching what he is, and what he may become ; 
how he is related to the universe, and how the 
harmonies of the outer world respond to the voice 
within him. It is in this range of study that he 
learns most fully his own tastes and aptitudes — 
and generally determines what his work in life 
shall be. 

The last item in the classification I have sug- 
gested, that special knowledge which is necessary 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 295 

to fit a man for the particular profession or calling 
he may adopt, I cannot discuss here, as it lies 
outside the field of general education ; but I will 
make one suggestion to any of the young gentle- 
men before me who may intend to choose, as his 
life-work, some one of the learned professions. 
You will make a fatal mistake if you make only 
the same preparations which your predecessors 
made fifty or even ten years ago. Each genera- 
tion must have a higher cultivation than the pre- 
ceding one, in order to be equally successful ; and 
each must be educated for his own times. If you 
become a lawyer, you must remember that the 
science of law is not fixed like geometry, but is 
a growth which keeps pace with the progress of 
society. The developments of the late war will 
make it necessary to re-write many of the leading- 
chapters of international and maritime law. The 
destruction of slavery and the enfranchisement of 
four millions of colored men will almost revolu- 
tionize American jurisprudence. If Webster were 
now at the bar, in the full glory of his strength, 
he would be compelled to reconstruct the whole 
fabric of his legal learning. Similar changes are 
occurring, both in the medical and military pro- 
fessions. Ten years hence the young surgeon will 



296 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

hardly venture to open an office till he has studied 
thoroughly the medical and surgical history of 
the late war. Since the experience at Sumter 
and Wagner, no nation will again build fortifica- 
tions of costly masonry ; for they have learned 
that earth-works are not only cheaper, but a better 
defence against artillery. The text-books on 
militar}^ engineering must be re-written. Our 
Spencer rifle and Prussian needle-gun have revo- 
lutionized, both the manufacture and the manual 
of arms ; and no great battle will ever again be 
fought with muzzle-loading muskets. Napoleon, 
at the head of his Old Guard, could to-day win no 
Austerlitz till he had read the military history of 
the last six years. 

It may perhaps be thought that the suggestion 
I have made concerning the professions will not 
apply to the work of the Christian minister, whose 
principal text-book is a divine and perfect revela- 
tion ; but, in my judgment, the remark applies to 
the clerical profession with even more force than 
to any other. There is no department of his du- 
ties in which he does not need the fullest and the 
latest knowledge. He is pledged to the defence 
of revelation and religion ; but it will not avail 
him to be able to answer the objections of Hume 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 297 

and Voltaire. The arguments of Paley were not 
written to answer the scepticisms of to-day. His 
" Natural Theology " is now less valuable than 
Hugh Miller's "Footprints of the Creator," or 
Guyot's lectures on "Earth and Man." The men 
and women of to-day know but little, and care 
less, about the thousand abstract questions of 
polemic theology which puzzled the heads and 
wearied the hearts of our Puritan fathers and 
mothers. That minister will make, and deserves 
to make, a miserable failure, who attempts to feed 
hungry hearts on the dead dogmas of the past. 
More than that of any other man it is his duty to 
march abreast with the advanced thinkers of his 
time, and be not only a learner, but a teacher, of 
its science, its literature, and its criticism. 

But I return to the main question before me. 
Having endeavored to state what kinds of knowl- 
edge should be the objects of a liberal education, 
I shall next inquire how well the course of study 
in American colleges is adapted to the attainment 
of these objects. In discussing this question, I do 
not forget that he is deemed a rash and imprudent 
man who invades with suggestions of change 
these venerable sanctuaries of learning. Let him 
venture to suggest that much of the wisdom there 



298 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

taught is foolishness, and he may hear from the 
college chapels of the land, in good Virgilian 
hexameter, the warning cry, " Procul 0! procul 
este profani ! " Happy for him if the whole body 
of alumni do not with equal pedantry respond in 
Horatian verse, "Fenum habet in cornu ; longe 
fugeP But I protest that a friend of American 
education may suggest changes in our college 
studies without committing profanation, or carry- 
ing hay on his horns. Our colleges have done, 
and are doing, a noble work, for which they 
deserve the thanks of the nation ; but he is not 
their enemy who suggests that they ought to do 
much better. As an alumnus of one which I 
shall always reverence, and as a friend of all, I 
will venture to discuss the work they are doing. 
I have examined some twenty catalogues of East- 
ern, Western, and Southern colleges, and find the 
subjects taught, and the relative time given to 
each, about the same in all. The chief difference 
is in the quantity of work required. I will take 
Harvard as a representative ; it being the oldest of 
our colleges, and certainly requiring as much study 
as any other. Remembering that the standard by 
which we measure a student's work for one day 
is three recitations of one hour each, and that his 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 299 

year usually consists of three terms of thirteen or 
fourteen weeks each, for convenience' sake I will 
divide the work required to admit him to college, 
and after four years to graduate him, into two 
classes : — 

1st, That which belongs to the study of Latin 
and Greek ; and, 2d, That which does not. 

Now, from the annual catalogue of Harvard for 
1866-67 (p. 26), I find that the candidate for 
admission to the Freshman class must be exam- 
ined in what will require the study of eight terms 
in Latin, six in Greek, one in ancient geography, 
one in Grecian history, and one in Roman history, 
which make seventeen terms in the studies of 
class first. Under the head of class second the 
candidate is required to be examined in reading, 
in common-school arithmetic and geography, in 
one term's study of algebra, and one term of 
geometry. English grammar is not mentioned. 

Thus, after studying the elementary branches 
which are taught in all our common schools, it 
requires about two years and a half of study to 
enter a college ; and of that study seventeen 
parts are devoted to the language, history, and 
geography of Greece and Rome, and two parts to 
all other subjects ! 



300 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Reducing the Harvard year to the usual divis- 
ion of three terms, the analysis of the work will 
be found as follows : not less than nine terms of 
Latin (there may be twelve if the student chooses 
it) ; not less than six terms of Greek (but twelve 
if he chooses it) ; and he may elect, in addition, 
three terms in Roman history. With the average 
of three recitations per day, and three terms per 
year, we may say that the whole work of college 
study consists of thirty-six parts. Not less than 
fifteen of these must be devoted to Latin and 
Greek, and not more than twenty-one to all other 
subjects. If the student chooses, he may devote 
twenty-four parts to Latin and Greek, and twelve 
to all other subjects. Taking the whole six and 
a half years of preparatory and college study, we 
find, that, to earn a bachelor's diploma at Har- 
vard, a young man, after leaving the district 
school, must devote four-sevenths of all his labor 
to Greece and Rome. 

Now, what do we find in our second, or un- 
dassical, list ? It is chiefly remarkable for what 
it does not contain. In the whole programme of 
study, lectures included, no mention whatever is 
made of physical geography, of anatomy, physi- 
ology, or the general history of the United States. 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 301 

A few weeks of the Senior year given to Guizot 
and the history of the Federal Constitution, and a 
lecture on general history once a week during 
half that year, furnish all that the graduate of 
Harvard is required to know of his own country 
and the living nations of the earth. 

He must apply years of arduous labor to the 
history, oratory, and poetry of Greece and Rome ; 
but he is not required to cull a single flower from 
the rich fields of our own literature. English 
literature is not named in the curriculum, except 
that the student may, if he chooses, attend a few 
general lectures on modern literature. 

Such are some of the facts in reference to the 
educational work of our most venerable college, 
where there is probably concentrated more general 
and special culture than at any other in America. 

I think it probable, that in some of the colleges 
the proportion of Latin and Greek to other studies 
may be less ; but I believe that in none of them 
the preparatory and college work devoted to these 
two languages is less than half of all the work 
required. 

Now, the bare statement of this fact should 
challenge, and must challenge, the attention of 
every thoughtful man in the nation. No wonder 



302 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

that men are demanding, with an earnestness that 
will not be repressed, to know how it happens, 
and why it happens, that, placing in one end of 
the balance all the mathematical studies ; all the 
physical sciences, in their recent rapid develop- 
ments ; all the study of the human mind and 
the laws of thought ; all the principles of political 
economy and social science, which underlie the 
commerce and industry, and shape the legislation, 
of nations; the history of our own nation, — its 
constitution of government and its great indus- 
trial interests ; all the literature and history of 
modern civilization, — placing all this, I say, in 
one end of the balance, they kick the beam when 
Greece and Rome are placed in the other. I 
hasten to say that I make no attack upon the 
study of these noble languages as an important 
and necessary part of a liberal education. I have 
no sympathy with that sentiment which would 
drive them from academy and college as a part 
of the dead past that should bury its dead. It 
is the proportion of the work given to them of 
which I complain. 

These studies hold their relative rank in obedi- 
ence to the tyranny of custom. Each new col- 
lege is modelled after the older ones, and all in 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 303 

America have been patterned on an humble scale 
after the universities of Europe. The prominence 
given to Latin and Greek at the founding of these 
universities was a matter of inexorable necessity. 
The continuance of the same, or anywhere near 
the same, relative prominence to-day, is both un- 
necessary and indefensible. I appeal to history 
for the proof of these assertions. 

Near the close of the fifth century we date the 
beginning of those dark ages which enveloped the 
whole world for a thousand years. The human 
race seemed stricken with intellectual paralysis. 
The noble language of the Csesars, corrupted by 
a hundred barbarous dialects, ceased to be a living 
tongue long before the modern languages of 
Europe had been reduced to writing. 

In Italy the Latin died in the tenth century; 
but the oldest document known to exist in Italian 
was not written till the year 1200. Italian did 
not really take its place in the family of written 
languages till a century later, when it was crys- 
tallized into form and made immortal by the genius 
of Dante and Petrarch. 

The Spanish was not a written language till the 
year 1200, and was scarcely known to Europe till 
Cervantes convulsed the world with laughter in 
1605. 



304 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

The Latin ceased to be spoken by the people 
of France in the tenth century, and French was 
not a written language till the beginning of the 
fourteenth century. Pascal, who died in 1662, is 
called the father of modern French prose. 

The German, as a literary language, dates from 
Luther, who died in 1546. It was one of his 
mortal sins against Rome, that he translated the 
Bible into the uncouth and vulgar tongue of 
Germany. 

Our own language is also of recent origin. 
Richard I. of England, who died in 1199, never 
spoke a word of English in his life. Our mother- 
tongue was never heard in an English court of 
justice till 1362. The statutes of England were 
not written in English till three years before 
Columbus landed in the New World. No philolo- 
gist dates modern English farther back than 1500. 
Sir Thomas More, the author of " Utopia," who 
died in 1535, was the father of English prose. 

The dark ages were the sleep of the world, 
while the languages of the modern world were 
being born out of chaos. 

The first glimmer of dawn was in the twelfth 
century, when in Paris, Oxford, and other parts 
of Europe, universities were established. The 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 305 

fifteenth century was spent in saving the rem- 
nants of classic learning which had been locked 
up in the cells of monks, — the Greek at Constan- 
tinople, and the Latin in the cloisters of Western 
Europe. 

During the first three hundred years of the life 
of the older universities, it is almost literally true, 
that no modern tongue had become a written lan- 
guage. The learning of Europe was in Latin and 
Greek. In order to study either science or litera- 
ture, these languages must first be learned. Eu- 
ropean writers continued to use Latin long after 
the modern languages were fully established. 
Even Milton's great " Defence of the People of 
England " was written in Latin, — as were also 
the " Principia," and other scientific works of 
Newton, who died in 1727. 

The pride of learned corporations, the spirit of 
exclusiveness among learned men, and their want 
of sympathy with the mass of the people, united 
to maintain Latin as the language of learning 
long after its use was defensible. 

Now, mark the contrast between the objects 
and demands of education when the European 
universities were founded, — or even when Har- 
vard was founded, — and its demands at the pres- 



306 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ent time. "We have a family of modern languages 
almost equal in force and perfection to the classic 
tongues, and a modern literature, which, if less 
perfect in aesthetic form than the ancient, is im- 
measurably richer in truth, and is filled with the 
noblest and bravest thoughts of the world. When 
the universities were founded, modern science 
was not born. Scarcely a generation has passed 
since then, without adding some new science to 
the circle of knowledge. As late as 1809 " The 
Edinburgh Review " declared that " lectures upon 
political economy would be discouraged in Ox- 
ford, probably despised, probably not permitted." 
At a much later date, there was no text-book in 
the United States on that subject. The claims 
of Latin and Greek to the chief place in the cur- 
riculum have been gradually growing less, and the 
importance of other knowledge has been con- 
stantly increasing; but the colleges have gen- 
erally opposed all innovations, and still cling to 
the old ways with stubborn conservatism. Some 
concessions, however, have been made to the ne- 
cessities of the times, both in Europe and Ameri- 
ca. Harvard would hardly venture to enforce its 
law (which prevailed long after Cotton Mather's 
day), forbidding its students to speak English 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 307 

within the college limits, under any pretext 
whatever; and British Cantabs have had their 
task of composing hexameters in bad Latin re- 
duced by a few thousand verses during the last 
century. 

It costs me a struggle to say any thing on this 
subject which may be regarded with favor by 
those who would reject the classics altogether, 
for I have read them and taught them with a 
pleasure and relish which few other pursuits 
have ever afforded me ; but I am persuaded that 
their supporters must soon submit to a re-adjust- 
ment of their relations to college study, or they 
may be driven from the course altogether. There 
are most weighty reasons why Latin and Greek 
should be retained as part of a liberal education. 
He who would study our own language pro- 
foundly must not forget that nearly thirty per 
cent of its words are of Latin origin, : — that the 
study of Latin is the study of universal grammar, 
and renders the acquisition of any modern lan- 
guage an easy task, and is indispensable to the 
teacher of language and literature, and to other 
professional men. 

Greek is perhaps the most perfect instrument 
of thought ever invented by man, and its litera- 



308 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ture has never been equalled in purity of style, 
and boldness of expression. As a means of intel- 
lectual discipline, its value can hardly be over- 
estimated. To take a long and complicated sen- 
tence in Greek, to study each word in its meanings, 
inflections, and relations, and to build up in the 
mind, out of these polished materials, a sentence 
perfect as a temple, and filled with Greek thought 
which has dwelt there two thousand years, is 
almost an act of creation : it calls into activity all 
the faculties of the mind. 

That the Christian Oracles have come down to 
us in Greek, will make Greek scholars forever a 
necessity. 

These studies, then, should not be neglected: 
they should neither devour nor be devoured. I 
insist they can be made more valuable, and at the 
same time less prominent, than they now are. A 
large part of the labor now bestowed upon them 
is devoted, not to learning the genius and spirit 
of the language, but is more than wasted on pedan- 
tic trifles. More than half a century ago, in his 
essay entitled " Professional Education," Sydney 
Smith lashed this trifling as it deserves. Speak- 
ing of classical Englishmen, he says, — 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 309 

" Their minds have been so completely possessed of ex- 
aggerated notions of classical learning, that they have not 
been able, in the great school of the world, to form any 
other notion of real greatness. Attend, too, to the public 
feelings; look to all the terms of applause. A learned man! 
a scholar ! a man of erudition ! Upon whom are these epi- 
thets of approbation bestowed? Are they given to men 
acquainted with the science of government, thoroughly 
masters of the geographical and commercial relations of 
Europe ? to men who know the properties of bodies and 
their action upon each other ? No : this is not learning ; it 
is chemistry or political economy, not learning. The distin- 
guishing abstract term, the epithet of scholar, is reserved for 
him who writes on the iEolic reduplication, and is familiar 
with the Sylburgian method of arranging defectives in u and 
fiu . . . The object of the young Englishman is not to 
reason, to imagine, or to invent, but to conjugate, decline, 
and derive. The situations of imaginary glory which he 
draws for himself are the detection of an anapest in the 
wrong place, or the restoration of a dative case which Cran- 
zius has passed over and the never-dying Ernesti failed to 
observe. If a young classic of this kind were to meet the 
greatest chemist, or the greatest mechanician, or the most 
profound political economist of his time, in company with 
the greatest Greek scholar, would the slightest comparison 
between them ever come across his mind ? Would he ever 
dream that such men as Adam Smith and Lavoisier were 
equal in dignity of understanding to, or of the same utility 
as, Bentley or Heyne ? We are inclined to think that the 
feeling excited would be a good deal like that which was 



310 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

expressed by Dr. George about the praises of the great King 
,of Prussia, who entertained considerable doubts whether the 
king, with all his victories, knew how to conjugate a Greek 
verb in jj.i." 

He concludes another essay, written in 1826, 
with these words : — 

"If there is any thing which fills reflecting men with 
melancholy and regret, it is the waste of mortal time, paren- 
tal money, and puerile happiness, in the present method of 
pursuing Latin and Greek." 

To write verse in these languages; to study 
elaborate theories of the Greek accent and the 
ancient pronunciation of both Greek and Latin, 
which no one can ever know he has discovered, 
and which would be utterly valueless if he did dis- 
cover it ; to toil over the innumerable exceptions 
to the arbitrary rules of poetic quantity, which 
few succeed in learning, and none remember, — 
these, and a thousand other similar things which 
crowd the pages of Zumpt and Kuhner, no more 
constitute a knowledge of the spirit and genius of 
the Greek and Latin languages than counting the 
number of threads to the square inch in a man's 
coat and the number of pegs in his boots makes 
us acquainted with his moral and intellectual char- 



COLLEGE EDUCATION. 311 

acter. The greatest literary monuments of Greece 
existed hundreds of years before the science of 
grammar was born. Plato and Thucydides had a 
tolerable acquaintance with the Greek language ; 
but Crosby goes far beyond their depth. 

Our colleges should require a student to under- 
stand thoroughly the structure, idioms, and spirit 
of these languages, and to be able, by the aid of 
a lexicon, to analyze and translate them with 
readiness and elegance. They should give him 
the key to the storehouse of ancient literature, 
that he may explore its treasures for himself in 
after-life. This can be done in two years less than 
the usual time, and nearly as well as it is now done. 

I am glad to inform you, young gentlemen, that 
the trustees of the institution in this place have 
this day resolved that in the course of study to be 
pursued here, Latin and Greek shall not be re- 
quired after the Freshman year. They must be 
studied the usual time as a requisite to admission, 
and they may be carried farther than Freshman 
year as elective studies ; but in the regular course 
their places will be supplied by some of the stud- 
ies I have already mentioned. Three or four 
terms in general literature will teach you that the 
republic of letters is larger than Greece or Rome. 



312 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

The board of trustees have been strengthened in 
the position they have taken, by the fact that a 
similar course for the future has recently been 
announced by the authorities of Harvard Uni- 
versity. Within the last six days, I have received 
a circular from the secretary of that venerable 
college, which announces that two-thirds of the 
Latin and Greek are hereafter to be stricken from 
the list of required studies of the college course. 

I rejoice that the movement has begun. Other 
colleges must follow the example ; and the day 
will not be far distant when it shall be the pride 
of a scholar that he is also a worker, and when 
the worker shall not refuse to become a scholar 
because he despises a trifler. 

I congratulate you that this change does not 
reduce the amount of labor required of you. If 
it did, I should deplore it. I beseech you to re- 
member that the genius of success is still the 
genius of labor. If hard work is not another 
name for talent, it is the best possible substitute 
for it. In the long-run, the chief difference in 
men will be found in the amount of work they do. 
Do not trust to what lazy men call the spur of 
the occasion. If you wish to wear spurs in the 
tournament of life, you must buckle them to your 
own heels before you enter the lists. 






COLLEGE EDUCATION. 313 

Men look with admiring wonder upon a great 
intellectual effort, like Webster's reply to Hayne, 
and seem to think that it leaped into life by the 
inspiration of the moment. But if by some intel- 
lectual chemistry we could resolve that masterly 
speech into its several elements of power, and 
trace each to its source, we should find that every 
constituent force had been elaborated twenty 
years before, — it may be, in some hour of earnest 
intellectual labor. Occasion may be the bugle- 
call that summons an army to battle ; but the blast 
of a bugle cannot ever make soldiers, or win 
victories. 

And finally, young gentlemen, learn to cultivate 
a wise reliance, based not on what you hope, but 
on what you perform. It has long been the habit 
of this institution, if I may so speak, to throw 
young men overboard, and let them sink or swim. 
None have yet drowned who were worth the 
saving. I hope the practice will be continued, 
and that you will not rely upon outside help for 
growth or success. Give crutches to cripples ; 
but go you forth with brave true hearts, knowing 
that fortune dwells in your brain and muscle, and 
that labor is the only human symbol of Omnip- 
otence. 



vm. 

Elements of ^ttccegg. 

ADDRESS BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF THE SPENOERIAN 

BUSINESS COLLEGE, WASHINGTON, D.C., 

JUNE 29, 1869. 



VIII. 

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 

T ADIES AND GENTLEMEN, — I have con- 
-*— * sented to address you this evening, chiefly 
for two reasons, — one of them personal to myself, 
the other public. The personal reason is, that I 
have a deep and peculiar sympathy with young 
people who are engaged in any department of edu- 
cation. Their pursuits are to me, not only matters 
of deep interest, but of profound mystery. It will 
not, perhaps, flatter you older people when I say 
that I have far less interest in you than in these 
young people. With us, the great questions of 
life are measurably settled. Our days go on, their 
shadows lengthening as we approach nearer to the 
evening which will soon deepen into the night of 
life ; but before these young people are the dawn, 
the sunrise, the coming noon, all the wonders and 
mysteries of life. For ourselves, much of all that 
belongs to the possibilities of life is ended ; and 
the very angels look down upon us with less curi- 

317 



318 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

osity than upon these whose lives are just opening. 
Pardon me, then, if I feel more interest in them 
than in you. 

I feel a profounder reverence for a boy than for 
a man. I never meet a ragged boy of the street 
without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I 
know not what possibilities may be buttoned up 
under his shabby coat. When I meet you in the 
full flush of mature life, I see nearly all there is 
of you ; but among these boys are the great men 
of the future, — the heroes of the next generation, 
the philosophers, the statesmen, the philanthro- 
pists, the great reformers and moulders of the next 
age. Therefore, I say, there is a peculiar charm 
to me in the exhibitions of young people engaged 
in the business of education. 

But there was a reason of public policy which 
brought me here to-night ; and it was to testify to 
the importance of these business colleges, and to 
give two or three reasons why they have been 
established in the United States. I wish every 
college president in the United States could hear 
the first reason I propose to give. Business col- 
leges, my fellow-citizens, originated in this country 
as a protest against the insufficiency of our system 
of education, — as a protest against the failure, the 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 319 

absolute failure, of our American schools and col- 
leges to fit young men and women for the business 
of life. Take the great classes graduated from 
the leading colleges of the country during this 
and the next month, and how many, or, rather, 
how few, of their members are fitted to go into 
the practical business of life, and transact it like 
sensible men! These business colleges furnish 
their graduates with a better education for practi- 
cal purposes than Princeton, Harvard, or Yale. 

The people are making a grave charge against 
our system of higher education when they com- 
plain that it is disconnected from the active busi- 
ness of life. It is a charge to which our colleges 
cannot plead guilty, and live. They must rectify 
the fault, or miserably fail of their great purpose. 
There is scarcely a more pitiable sight than to see 
here and there learned men, so called, who have 
graduated in our own and the universities of 
Europe with high honors, — men who know the 
whole gamut of classical learning, who have sound- 
ed the depths of mathematical and speculative 
philosophy, — and yet who could not harness a 
horse, or make out a bill of sale, if the world de- 
pended upon it. 

The fact is, that our curriculum of college 



320 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

studies was not based on modern ideas, and has 
not grown up to our modern necessities. The 
prevailing system was established at a time when 
the learning of the world was in Latin and Greek, — 
when, if a man would learn arithmetic, he must 
first learn Latin ; and, if he would learn the his- 
tory and geography of his own country, he would 
acquire that knowledge only through the Latin 
language. Of course, in those days, it was neces- 
sary to lay the foundation of learning in a knowl- 
edge of the learned languages. 

The universities of Europe, from which our col- 
leges were copied, were founded before the modern 
languages were born. The leading languages of 
Europe are scarcely six hundred years old. The 
reasons for a course of study then are not good 
now. The old necessities have passed away. We 
now have strong and noble living languages, rich in 
literature, replete with high and earnest thought, 
the language of science, religion, and liberty ; and 
yet we bid our children feed their spirits on the 
life of dead ages, instead of the inspiring life and 
vigor of our own times. I do not object to clas- 
sical learning, — far from it ; but I would not have 
it exclude the living present. Therefore I wel- 
come the business college in the form it has taken 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 321 

in the United States, because it meets an acknowl- 
edged want, by affording to young people of only 
common scholastic attainments, and even to the 
classes that graduate from Harvard and Yale, an 
opportunity to learn important and indispensable 
lessons before they go out into the business of life. 

The present Chancellor of the British Ex- 
chequer, the Right Honorable Robert Lowe, one 
of the brightest minds in that kingdom, said in a 
recent address before the venerable University of 
Edinburgh, " I was a few months ago in Paris, and 
two graduates of Oxford went with me to get our 
dinner at a restaurant ; and, if the white-aproned 
waiter had not been better educated than all three 
of us, we might have starved to death. We could 
not ask for our dinner in his language, but fortu- 
nately he could ask us in our own language what 
we wanted." There was one test of the insuf- 
ficiency of modern education. 

There is another reason why I am glad that 
these business colleges have been established in 
this country, and particularly in the city of Wash- 
ington. If there be any city on this continent 
where such institutions are needed more than in 
any other, it is here in this city, for the benefit 
of the employees of the United States. 



322 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Allow me, young ladies and gentlemen, to turn 
aside for one moment to speak of what relates to 
your business life. If I could speak one sentence 
which could be echoed through every department 
of the government, addressing myself not to 
those in middle life, whose plans for the future 
are fixed, but to those who are beginning life, I 
would say to every young man and woman in the 
civil service of the government, " Hasten by the 
most rapid steps to get out of these departments 
into active, independent business life." Do not 
misunderstand me. Your work is honorable, — 
honorable to yourselves, and necessary to the 
government. I make no charge on that score ; 
but to a young man, who has in himself the mag- 
nificent possibilities of life, it is not fitting that 
he should be permanently commanded : he should 
be a commander. You must not continue to be 
the employed: you must be an employer. You 
must be promoted from the ranks to the com- 
mand. There is something, young men, which 
you can command : go and find it, and command 
it. You can at least command a horse and dray, 
can be generalissimo of them, and may carve out 
a fortune with them. And I did not fall on that 
illustration by accident, young gentlemen. Do 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 323 

you know the fact? If you do not, let me tell 
it you, — that more fortunes have been won, and 
fewer failures known, in the dray business than 
in wholesale merchandising. 

Do not, I beseech you, be content to enter 
upon any business which does not require and 
compel constant intellectual growth. Do not 
enter into any business which will leave you no 
farther advanced mentally than it found you, — 
which will require no more ability and culture at 
'the end than it did at the beginning of twenty-five 
years. I ask you whether your work in the 
departments is not mainly of that kind, and 
whether it must not continue to be of that kind. 
If you take advantage of our magnificent libra- 
ries here; of the law colleges or the medical 
colleges; if, whatever your plans may be, you 
complete and utilize your education by taking a 
course in the business college ; if you hold office 
in the departments for a few years to enable you 
to live while you obtain a legal, medical, or busi- 
ness education, — you are doing a worthy work. 
It always pleases me to see young men obtain 
such places for such a purpose. But, while I 
will cheerfully help a young man to secure such 
a place for such a reason, I would warn him not 



324 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

to continue in it, but to get out of it as soon 
as possible, and take a place of active personal 
responsibility in the great industrial family of the 
nation. 

There is another reason, — the last I shall giv( 
in illustrating the importance of business colleges, 
— and that is the consideration which was s< 
beautifully and cogently urged a few moments 
since, by the young lady who delivered the vale- 
dictory of her class, that it is almost surplusage 
to add a word to her discussion. The career 
opened in business colleges, especially in this one, 
for young women, is a most important and note- 
worthy feature of these institutions. 

Laugh at it as we may, put it aside as a jest 
if we will, keep it out of Congress or political 
campaigns, still the woman question is rising in 
our horizon larger than the size of a man's hand ; 
and some solution ere long that question must 
find. I have not yet committed my mind to 
any formula that embraces the whole question. 
I halt on the threshold of so great a problem. 
But there is one point on which I have reached 
a conclusion ; and that is, that this nation must 
open up new avenues of work and usefulness to 
the women of the country, so that everywhere 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 325 

they may have something to do. This is, just 
now, infinitely more valuable to them than the 
platform or the ballot-box. Whatever conclusion 
shall be reached on that subject by and by, at 
present the most valuable gift which can be 
bestowed on women is something to do, which 
they can do well and worthily, and thereby main- 
tain themselves. Therefore I say that every 
thoughtful statesman will look with satisfaction 
upon such business colleges as are opening a 
career for our young women. On that score we 
have special reasons to be thankful for the estab- 
lishment of these institutions. 

Now, young gentlemen, let me for a moment 
address you touching your success in life ; and I 
hope the very brevity of my remarks will increase 
the chance of their making a lodgement in your 
minds. Let me beg you, in the outset of your 
career, to dismiss from your minds all ideas of 
succeeding by luck. There is no more common 
thought among young people than that foolish 
one, that by and by something will turn up by 
which they will suddenly achieve fame or fortune. 
No, young gentlemen, things don't turn up in this 
world unless somebody turns them up. Inertia is 
one of the indispensable laws of matter ; and things 



326 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

lie flat where they are until by some intelligent 
spirit (for nothing but spirit makes motion in this 
world) they are endowed with activity and life. 
Do not dream that some good luck is going to 
happen to you, and give you a fortune. Luck is 
an ignis fatuus : you may follow it to ruin, but not 
to success. The great Napoleon, who believed in 
his destiny, followed it until he saw his star go 
down in blackest night, when the Old Guard 
perished around him, and Waterloo was lost. A 
pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. 

Young men talk of trusting to the spur of the 
occasion. That trust is vain. Occasions cannot 
make spurs, young gentlemen. If you expect to 
wear spurs, you must win them. If you wish to 
use them, you must buckle them to your own heels 
before you go into the fight. Any success you 
may achieve is not worth the having unless you 
fight for it. Whatever you win in life you must 
conquer by your own efforts ; and then it is yours, 
— a part of yourself. 

Again : in order to have any success in life, or 
any worthy success, you must resolve to carry into 
your work a fulness of knowledge, — not merely 
a sufficiency, but more than a sufficiency. In this 
respect, follow the rule of the machinists. If they 






ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 327 

want a machine to do the work of six horses, they 
give it nine-horse power, so that they may have a 
reserve of three. To carry on the business of life, 
you must have surplus power. Be fit for more 
than the thing you are now doing. Let every one 
know that you have a reserve in yourself, — 
that you have more power than you are now using. 
If you are not too large for the place you occupy, 
you are too small for it. How full our country is 
of bright examples, not only of those who occupy 
some proud eminence in public life, but in every 
place you may find men going on with steady 
nerve, attracting the attention of their fellow- 
citizens, and carving out for themselves names 
and fortunes from small and humble beginnings 
and in the face of formidable obstacles. Let me 
cite an example of a man I recently saw in the 
little village of Norwich, New York. If you wish 
to know his name, go into any hardware-store, and 
ask for the best hammer in the world ; and, if the 
salesman be an intelligent man, he will bring you a 
hammer bearing the name of D. Maydole. Young 
gentlemen, take that hammer in your hand, drive 
nails with it, and draw inspiration from it. 

Thirty years ago a boy was struggling through 
the snows of Chenango Valley, trying to hire him- 



328 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

self to a blacksmith. He succeeded, and learned 
his trade ; but he did more. He took it into his 
head that he could make a better hammer than 
any other man had made. He devoted himself to 
the task for more than a quarter of a century. He 
studied the chemistry of metals, the strength of 
materials, the philosophy of form. He studied 
failures. Each broken hammer taught him a les- 
son. There was no part of the process that he 
did not master. He taxed his wit to invent ma- 
chines to perfect and cheapen his processes. No 
improvement in working steel or iron escaped his 
notice. What may not twenty-five years of effort 
accomplish when concentrated on a single object ? 
He earned success; and now, when his name is 
stamped on a steel hammer, it is his note, his bond, 
his integrity embodied in steel. The spirit of the 
man is in each hammer; and the work, like the 
workman, is unrivalled. Mr. Maydole is now 
acknowledged to have made the best hammer in 
the world. Even the sons of Thor, across the sea, 
admit it. 

While I was there, looking through his shop, 
with all its admirable arrangement of tools and 
machinery, there came to him a large order from 
China. The merchants of the Celestial Kingdom 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 329 

had sent down to the little town, where the per- 
sistent blacksmith now lives in affluence, to get 
the best that Anglo-Saxon skill had accomplished 
in the hammer business. It is no small achieve- 
ment to do one thing better than any other man 
in the world has done it. 

Let me call your attention to something nearer 
your own work in this college. About forty years 
ago a young lad who had come from the Catskill 
Mountains, where he had learned the rudiments of 
penmanship by scribbling on the sole-leather of a 
good old Quaker shoemaker (for he was too poor 
to buy paper) till he could write better than his 
neighbors, commenced to teach in that part of 
Ohio which has been called " benighted Ashta- 
bula " (I suggest " beknighted " as the proper 
spelling of the word). He set up a little writing- 
school in a rude log cabin, and threw into the 
work the fervor of a poetic soul and a strength of 
heart and spirit that few men possess. He caught 
his ideals of beauty from the waves of the lake 
and the curves they make upon the white sand 
beach, and from the tracery of the spider's web. 
Studying the lines of beauty as drawn by the 
hand of Nature, he wrought out that system of 
penmanship which is now the pride of our coun- 



330 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

try, and the model of our schools. It is the sys- 
tem you have been learning in this college, and 
which is so worthily represented by the son of its 
author, my friend Professor Spencer, your able 
instructor. This is an example of what a man 
may do by putting his whole heart into the work 
he undertakes. 

Only yesterday, on my way here, I learned a 
fact which I will give you to show how, by attend- 
ing to things, and putting your mind to the work, 
you may reach success. A few days ago, in the 
city of Boston, there was held an exhibition of 
photography ; and to the great surprise of New 
England it turned out that Mr. Ryder, a pho- 
tographer from Cleveland, O., took the prize for 
the best photography in America. But how did 
this thing happen ? I will tell you. This Cleve- 
land photographer happened to read in a German 
paper of a process practised by the artists of 
Bohemia, — a process of touching up the negative 
with the finest instruments, thus removing all 
chemical imperfections from the negative itself. 
Reading this, he sent for one of these artists, and 
at length succeeded in bringing the art of Bohe- 
mia into the service of his own profession. 

The patient Bohemian sat down with his lenses, 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 331 

and bringing a strong, clear light upon these neg- 
atives, working with the finest instruments, round- 
ing and strengthening the outlines, was able at 
last to print from the negative a photograph more 
perfect than any I have seen made with the help 
of an India-ink finish: And so Mr. Ryder took 
the prize. Why not ? It was no mystery : it was 
simply taking time by the forelock, securing the 
best aid in his business, and bringing to bear the 
force of an energetic mind to attain the best pos- 
sible results. That is the only way, young ladies 
and gentlemen, in which success is gained. These 
men succeed because they deserve success. Their 
results are wrought out : they do not come to 
hand already made. Poets may be born, but 
success is made. 

Young gentlemen, let not poverty stand as an 
obstacle in your way. Poverty is uncomfortable, 
as I can testify ; but nine times out of ten the 
best thing that can happen to a young man is to 
be tossed overboard, and compelled to sink or 
swim for himself. In all my acquaintance, I have 
never known one to be drowned who was worth 
the saving. This would not be wholly true in any 
country but one of political equality like ours. 
The editor of one of the leading magazines of 



332 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

England told me, not many months ago, a fact 
startling enough in itself, but of great significance 
to a poor man. He told me that he had never yet 
known, in all his experience, a single boy of the 
class of farm-laborers (not those who own farms, 
but mere farm-laborers) who had ever risen above 
his class. Boys from the manufacturing and com- 
mercial classes had risen frequently, but from the 
farm -labor class he had never known one. 

The reason is this : In the aristocracies of the 
Old World, wealth and society are built up like 
the strata of rock which compose the crust of the 
earth. If a boy be born in the lowest stratum of 
life, it is almost impossible for him to rise through 
this hard crust into the higher ranks ; but in this 
country it is not so. The strata of our society 
resemble rather the ocean, where every drop, even 
the lowest, is free to mingle with all others, and 
may shine at last on the crest of the highest wave. 
This is the glory of our country, young gentle- 
men ; and you need not fear that there are any 
obstacles which will prove too great for any brave 
heart. You will recollect what Burns, who knew, 
all meanings of poverty and struggle, has said in 
homely verse : — 



ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 333 

" Though losses and crosses 
Be lessons right severe, 
There's wit there, you'll get there, 
You'll find no other where." 

One thought more, and I will close. This is 
almost a sermon, but I cannot help it; for the 
occasion itself has given rise to the thoughts I am 
offering you. Let me suggest, that, in giving you 
being, God locked up in your nature certain forces 
and capabilities. What will you do with them ? 
Look at the mechanism of a clock. Take off the 
pendulum and ratchet, and the wheels go rattling 
down, and all its force is expended in a moment ; 
but properly balanced and regulated it will go on, 
letting out its force tick by tick, measuring hours 
and days, and doing faithfully the service for 
which it was designed. I implore you to cherish 
and guard and use well the forces that God has 
given to you. You may let them run down in a 
year, if you will. Take off the strong curb of 
discipline and morality, and you will be an old 
man before your twenties are passed. Preserve 
these forces. Do not burn them out with brandy, 
or waste them in idleness and crime. Do not 
destroy them. Do not use them unworthily. Save 
and protect them, that they may save for you 



334 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

fortune and fame. Honestly resolve to do this, 
and you will be an honor to yourself and to your 
country. I thank you, young friends, for your 
kind attention. 



IX. 

Some STentjenctes of American fEtmcatfott. 

SPEECH BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE 

OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, 

WASHINGTON, D.C., FEB. 5, 1879. 



IX. 

SOME TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

GENTLEMEN, I am really not in a situation 
to say any thing to this convention, for I do 
not know where you are in the course of your 
deliberations ; but Dr. Loring has said some things 
that have awakened in me a very lively interest, 
and I will " rake after his cradling," as the har- 
vesters would say. It is a matter of great gratifi- 
cation to me to meet gentlemen who are engaged 
in the work of education. I feel at home among 
teachers ; and, I may say, I look back with more 
satisfaction upon my work as a teacher than upon 
any other work I have done. It gives me a pleas- 
ant home feeling to sit among you, and revive old 
memories. 

There is one thing to which I will venture to 
call your attention ; and that is the great case, if I 
may speak as a lawyer, which is soon to be tried 
before the American people, — the case of Brains 
vs. Brick and Mortar. That, in my judgment, is to 

337 



338 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

be a notable trial ; and until the cause is fully 
argued and rightly decided, we shall have no end 
of trouble in our educational work. To insure its 
final and rightful settlement, the friends of our 
schools should unite to force the question to a 
hearing, and should go to the very bottom of the 
controversy. It has long been my opinion, that 
we are all educated, whether children, men, or 
women, far more by personal influence than by 
books and the apparatus of schools. If I could 
be taken back into boyhood to-day, and had all 
the libraries and apparatus of a university, with 
ordinary routine professors, offered me on the one 
hand, and on the other a great, luminous, rich- 
souled man, such as Dr. Hopkins was twenty 
years ago, in a tent in the woods alone, I should 
say, " Give me Dr. Hopkins for my college course, 
rather than any university with only routine pro- 
fessors." The privilege of sitting down before a 
great clear-headed, large-hearted man, and breath- 
ing the atmosphere of his life, and being drawn 
up to him and lifted up by him, and learning 
his methods of thinking and living, is in itself 
an enormous educating power. But America, I 
say; is running to brick and mortar. Colleges 
and universities are constantly receiving munifi- 



TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 339 

cent gifts which the donors require to be built 
into walls inscribed with their names ; but the real 
college sits starving under the stately shadows. 
Our Smithsonian Institution over here was, for a 
long time, engaged in this struggle between brick 
and brains. One of the first things done by Con- 
gress was to saddle it with a huge brick building. 
Another impediment we fortunately got rid of, — 
the great library of the Institution, which de- 
voured five thousand dollars a year of the income ; 
and we are now struggling to get off our hands 
the great museum, which costs still more. Mu- 
seums and libraries are necessary and valuable ; 
but the central purpose of Smithson, to encourage 
original discovery, was in great measure thwarted 
by the mere accumulation of materials. I hope 
the day is not distant when the income of that 
beneficent institution will be so liberated that 
every American who has the requisite genius and 
force can find there the help required for original 
investigation. 

And so, in our schools, let us put less money in 
great schoolhouses, and more in the salaries of 
teachers. Smaller schools and more teachers, less 
machinery and more personal influence, will bring 
forth fruits higher and better than any we have 
vet seen. 



340 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

In this connection I will refer to the tendency 
in our primary schools to overcrowd the children 
by giving them too many studies, and thus render- 
ing them superficial in all. The professors at 
West Point tell us that for more than forty years 
their course of examinations of cadets for admis- 
sion has been substantially the same, and that the 
questions now asked in the several branches are 
the same as those propounded in the same 
branches forty years ago. Now, these professors 
say that the percentage of failures to pass that 
preliminary examination has been increasing, es- 
pecially of late, with alarming rapidit}^, and is very 
much greater than it was forty years ago. I un- 
derstand that Professor Church says this fact does 
not arise from worse appointments, nor from lack 
of general information. Indeed, the young men 
who go there now have much more general cul- 
ture than their earlier predecessors. Many of 
them, who have studied Latin, algebra, and phys- 
ics, and other higher branches, utterly break 
down in spelling, penmanship, arithmetic, and 
grammar. In short, they know a little of many 
branches, but are thorough in none. 

There is a limit of effort in a child ; and if his 
culture is spread over too large a surface, it will 



TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 341 

be thin everywhere. The ambition of our schools 
to do too much results in doing nothing well. 
Non multa sed multum is the old and safe rule. I 
believe, therefore, that the two great points which 
the educators of this country should aim at if 
they would succeed are, first, smaller schools and 
more teachers, — remembering always that a 
teacher who is at all fit for his work is one who 
has the power of inspiring, who can pour his spirit 
into the darkness of the pupil's mind, and fill 
it with " sweetness and light ; " secondly, they 
should cut off a large number of new studies 
which have been forced into the earlier course, 
and concentrate their efforts upon the old primary 
branches until these are thoroughly mastered. 

Now, gentlemen, you who are conducting the 
educational affairs of this country cannot afford 
to rest under tins charge of failure at West Point. 
You must answer by disproving the charge, or 
removing the evil. Every conference among 
educators should be directed to these questions ; 
and when they are settled, you will have rendered 
one of the highest services that can be rendered 
to this country. 

If I may refer to the national aspect of your 
profession, I will say we can never escape Mac- 



342 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

aulay's prophecy of the downfall of the Republic, 
unless we do it by the aid of the schoolmaster. 
Macaulay said that a government like ours must 
inevitably lead to anarchy ; and I believe there is 
no answer to his prophecy unless the schoolmaster 
can give it. If we can fill the minds of all our 
children who are to be voters with intelligence 
which will fit them wisely to vote, and fill them 
with the spirit of liberty, then will we have 
averted the fatal prophecy. But if, on the other 
hand, we allow our youth to grow up in ignorance, 
this Republic will end in disastrous failure. All 
the encouragement that the National Government 
can give, every thing that States can do, all that 
good citizens every where can do, and most of all 
what the teacher himself can do, ought to be 
hailed as the deliverance of our country from the 
saddest distress. 



X. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

&. jF. B. jHorse. 

AN ADDRESS AT THE MORSE MEMORIAL MEETING, HELD 

IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

APRIL 16, 1872. 



X. 

S. F. B. MORSE. 

rT^HE grave has just closed over the mortal 
"■" remains of one whose name will be forever 
associated with a series of achievements in the 
domain of discovery and invention the most won- 
derful our race has ever known, — wonderful in 
the results accomplished, more wonderful still 
in the agencies employed, most wonderful in the 
scientific revelations which preceded and accom- 
panied its development. 

The electro-magnetic telegraph is the embodi- 
men t — I might say the incarnation — of many 
centuries of thought, of many generations of 
effort to elicit from Nature one of her deepest 
mysteries. 

No one man, no one century, could have 
achieved it. It is the child of the human race, — 
"the heir of all the ages." How wonderful were 
the steps which led to its creation! The very 
name of this telegraphic instrument bears record 

345 



346 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

of its history, — " electric, magnetic ! " The first 
named from the bit of yellow amber, whose quali- 
ties of attraction and repulsion were discovered 
by a Grecian philosopher twenty-four centuries 
ago ; and the second from Magnesia, the village 
of Asia Minor, where first was found the load- 
stone whose touch turned the needle forever to 
the north. These were the earliest forms in 
which that subtle, all-pervading force revealed 
itself to men. In the childhood of the race, men 
stood dumb in the presence of its more terrible 
manifestations. When it gleamed in the purple 
aurora, or shot dusky-red from the clouds, it was 
the eye-flash of an angry God, before whom mor- 
tals quailed in helpless fear. 

When the electric light burned blue on the 
spear-points of the Roman legions, it was to them 
and their leaders a portent from the gods, beckon- 
ing to victory. When the phosphorescent light, 
which the sailors still call St. Elmo's fire, hovered 
on the masts and spars of the Roman ship, it was 
Castor and Pollux, twin gods of the sea, guiding 
the mariner to port, or the beacon of an avenging 
god luring him to death. 

When we consider the startling forms in which 
this element presents itself, it is not surprising 



S. F. B. MORSE. 347 

that so many centuries elapsed before man dared 
to confront and question its awful mystery. And 
it was fitting that here, in this new, free world, 
the first answer came, revealing to our Franklin 
the great truth, that the lightning of the sky, 
and the electricity of the laboratory, were one ; 
that in the simple electric toy were embodied all 
the mysteries of the thunderbolt. Until near the 
beginning of the present century, the only known 
method of producing electricity was by friction. 
But the discoveries of Galvani in 1790, and of 
Volta in 1810, resulted in the production of elec- 
tricity by the chemical action of acids upon metals, 
and gave to the world the galvanic battery and 
the voltaic pile and the electric current. This 
was the first step in that path of modern discov- 
ery which led to the telegraph. But further 
discoveries were necessary to make the telegraph 
possible. 

The next great step was taken by Oersted, the 
Swedish professor, who, in 1819-20, made the dis- 
covery that the needle, when placed near the gal- 
vanic battery, was deflected at right angles with 
the electric current. In the four modest pages 
in which Oersted announced this discovery to 
the world, the science of electro-magnetism was 
founded. 



348 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

As Franklin had exhibited the relation between 
lightning and the electric fluid, so Oersted exhib- 
ited the relation between magnetism and elec- 
tricity. From 1820 to 1825 his discovery was 
further developed by Davy and Sturgeon of Eng- 
land, and Arago and Ampere of France. They 
found, that, by sending a current of electricity 
through a wire coiled around a piece of soft iron, 
the iron became a magnet while the current was 
passing, and ceased to be a magnet when the 
current was broken. This gave an intermittent 
power, — a power to grapple and to let go, at the 
will of the electrician. Ampere suggested that a 
telegraph was possible by applying this power to 
a needle. 

In 1825 Barlow of England made experiments 
to verify this suggestion of the telegraph, and 
pronounced it impracticable on the ground that 
the batteries then used would not send the fluid 
through even two hundred feet of wire without a 
sensible diminution of its force. 

In 1831 Joseph Henry, now secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution, then a professor at Alba- 
ny, N.Y., as the result of numerous experiments 
discovered a method by which he produced a bat- 
tery of such intensity as to overcome the diffi- 
culty spoken of by Barlow in 1825. 



S. F. B. MORSE. 349 

By means of this his discovery, he magnetized 
soft iron at a great distance from the battery, 
pointed out the fact that a telegraph was possible, 
and actually rang a bell by means of the electro- 
magnet acting on a long wire. 

This was the last step in the series of great 
discoveries which preceded the invention of the 
telegraph. 

When these discoveries ended, the work of the 
inventor began. It was in 1832, the year that 
succeeded the last of these great discoveries, 
when Professor Morse first turned his thoughts 
to that work whose triumph is the triumph of his 
race. He had devoted twenty-two years of his 
manhood to the study and practice of art. He 
had sat at the feet of the great masters of Europe, 
and had already, by his own works of art, achieved 
a noble name from the work of interpreting ; and 
he now turned to the grander work of interpret- 
ing to the world that subtle and mysterious ele- 
ment with which the thinkers of the human race 
had so long been occupied. 

I cannot here recount the story of that long 
struggle through which he passed to the accom- 
plishment of his great result; how he struggled 
with poverty, with the vast difficulties of the sub- 



350 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ject itself, with the unfaith, the indifference, and 
the contempt which almost everywhere con- 
fronted him ; how, at the very moment of his tri- 
umph, he was on the verge of despair, when in 
this very Capitol his project met the jeers of 
almost a majority of the National Legislature. 
But when has despair yielded to such a triumph ? 
When has such a morning risen on such a night ? 
To all cavillers and doubters, this instrument and 
its language are a triumphant answer. That 
chainless spirit which fills the immensity of space 
with its invisible presence ; which dwells in the 
blaze of the sun, and follows the path of the far- 
thest star, and courses the depths of earth and 
seai — that mighty spirit has at last yielded to the 
human will. It has entered a body prepared for 
its dwelling. It has found a voice through which 
it speaks to the human ear. It has taken its 
place as the humble servant of man ; and through 
all coming time its work will be associated with 
the name and fame of Samuel F. B. Morse. 

Were there no other proof of the present value 
of his work, this alone would suffice, — that 
throughout the world, whatever the language or 
the dialect of those who use it, the telegraph 
speaks a language whose first element is the 



S. F. B. MORSE. 351 

alphabet of Morse; and in 1869, of the sixteen 
thousand telegraphic instruments used on the 
lines of Europe, thirteen thousand were of the 
pattern invented by Morse. The future of this 
great achievement can be measured by no known 
standards. Morse gave us the instrument and 
the alphabet. The world is only beginning to 
spell out the lesson, whose meaning the future 
will read. 



XI. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

ADDRESS AT THE MEMORIAL MEETING- HELD IN THE 

HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

TUESDAY EVENING, JAN. 16, 1879. 



XL 

JOSEPH HENRY. 

" And who hath trod Olympus, from his eye 
Fades not the hroader outlook of the gods." 

nV/TR. PRESIDENT, — In the presence of these 
fathers of science, who have honored this 
occasion with their wisdom and eloquence, I can 
do but little more than express my gratitude for 
the noble contribution they have made to this 
national expression of love and reverence. So 
completely have they covered the ground, so fully 
have they sketched the great life which we cele- 
brate, that nothing is left but to linger a moment 
over the tributes they have offered, and select 
here and there a special excellence to carry away 
as a lasting memorial. 

No page of human history is so instructive and 
significant as the record of those early influences 
which develop the character and direct the lives 
of eminent men. To every man of great original 
power, there comes in early youth a moment of 

355 



356 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

sudden discovery, of self-recognition, when his 
own nature is revealed to himself, when he catches, 
for the first time, a strain of that immortal song 
to which his own spirit answers, and which be- 
comes thenceforth and forever the inspiration of 
his life, — 

" Like noble music unto noble words." 

More than a hundred years ago, in Strasbourg 
on the Rhine, in obedience to the commands of 
his father, a German lad was reluctantly studying 
the mysteries of the civil law, but feeding his 
spirit as best he could upon the formal and artifi- 
cial poetry of his native land, when a page of Wil- 
liam Shakespeare met his eye, and changed the 
whole current of his life. Abandoning the law, 
he created and crowned with an immortal name 
the grandest epoch of German literature. 

Recording his own experience, he says, — 

" At the first touch of Shakespeare's genius I made the 
glad confession that something inspiring hovered above me. 
. . . The first page of his that I read made me his for life ; 
and when I had finished a single play, I stood like one born 
blind on whom a miraculous hand bestows sight in a mo- 
ment. I saw, I felt, in the most vivid manner, that my 
existence was infinitely expanded." 



JOSEPH HENRY. 357 

This old-world experience of Goethe's was strik- 
ingly reproduced, though under different condi- 
tions, and with different results, in the early life of 
Joseph Henry. You have just heard the incident 
worthily recounted; but let us linger over it a 
moment. An orphan boy of sixteen, of tough 
Scotch fibre, laboring for his own support at the 
handicraft of the jeweller, unconscious of his great 
power, delighted with romance and the drama, 
dreaming of a possible career on the stage, his 
attention was suddenly arrested by a single page 
of an humble book of science which chanced to 
fall into his hands. It was not the flash of poetic 
vision which aroused him: it was the voice of 
great Nature calling her child. With quick rec- 
ognition and glad reverence his spirit responded ; 
and from that moment to the end of his long and 
honored life, Joseph Henry was the devoted stu- 
dent of science, the faithful interpreter of nature. 
To those who knew his gentle spirit, it is not 
surprising that ever afterward he kept the little 
volume near him, and cherished it as the source of 
his first inspiration. In the maturity of his fame, 
he recorded on its fly-leaf his gratitude. Note his 
words : — 



358 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

" This book under Providence has exerted a remarkable 
influence on my life. ... It opened to me a new world of 
thought and enjoyment, invested things before almost un- 
noticed with the highest interest, fixed my mind on the 
study of nature, and caused me to resolve at the time of 
reading it that I would devote my life to the acquisition of 
knowledge." 

We have heard from his venerable associates 
with what resolute perseverance he trained his 
mind and marshalled his powers for the higher 
realms of science. He was the first American 
after Franklin who made a series of successful 
original experiments in electricity and magnetism. 
He entered the mighty line of Volta, Galvani, 
Oersted, Davy, and Ampere, the great exploring 
philosophers of the world, and added to their 
work a final great discovery which made the 
electro-magnetic telegraph possible. 

It remained only for the inventor to construct 
an instrument and an alphabet. Professor Henry 
refused to reap any pecuniary rewards from his 
great discovery, but gave freely to mankind what 
nature and science had given to him. 

I observe that these venerable gentlemen who 
have spoken express some regret that Professor 
Henry left their higher circle to come down to us ; 



JOSEPH HENRY. 859 

and to some extent I share their regret. Doubt- 
less it was a great loss to science. I remember 
that Agassiz once said he had made it the rule 
of his life to abandon any scientific investigation 
so soon as it became useful. I fancied I saw him 
and his brethren going beyond the region of per- 
petual frost, up among the wild elements of nature 
and the hidden mysteries of science, and when 
they had made a discovery, and brought it down 
to the line of commercial value, leaving it there, 
knowing that the world would make it useful and 
profitable, while they went back to resume their 
original search. I do not wonder that these men 
regretted the loss of such a comrade as Joseph 
Henry. 

But something is due to the millions of Ameri- 
cans outside the circle of science ; and the Repub- 
lic has the right to call on all her children for 
service. It was needful that the government should 
have, here at its capital, a great, luminous-minded, 
pure-hearted man, to serve as its counsellor and 
friend in matters of science. Such an adviser was 
never more needed than at the elate of Professor 
Henry's arrival at the capital. 

The venerable gentleman of almost eighty 
years, who has just addressed us so eloquently, 



360 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

has portrayed the difficulties which beset the gov- 
ernment in its attempt to determine how it should 
wisely and worthily execute the trust of Smithson. 
It was a perilous moment for the credit of America 
when that bequest was made. In his large catho- 
licity of mind, Smithson did not trammel the be- 
quest with conditions. In nine words he set forth 
its object : " For the increase and diffusion of 
knowledge among men." He asked and believed 
that America would interpret his wish aright, and 
with the liberal wisdom of science. 

A town-meeting is not a good place to deter- 
mine scientific truths. And the yeas and nays 
that are called from this desk from day to day are 
not the supreme test of science, as the country 
finds when we attempt to settle any scientific 
question, whether it relates to the polariscope or 
to finance. 

For ten years Congress wrestled with those nine 
words of Smithson, and could not handle them. 
Some political philosophers of that period held 
that we had no constitutional authority to accept 
the gift at all, and proposed to send it back to 
England. Every conceivable proposition was 
made. The colleges clutched at it; the libraries 
wanted it ; the publication societies desired to 



JOSEPH HENRY. 361 

scatter it. The fortunate settlement of the ques- 
tion was this : that, after ten years of wrangling, 
Congress was wise enough to acknowledge its own 
ignorance, and authorized a body of men to find 
some one who knew how to settle it. And these 
men were wise enough to choose your great com- 
rade to undertake the task. Sacrificing his bril- 
liant prospects as a discoverer, he undertook the 
difficult work. He draughted a paper, in which he 
offered an interpretation of the will of Smithson, 
mapped out a plan which would meet the de- 
mands of science, and submitted it to the suffrage 
of the republic of scientific scholars. After due 
deliberation it received the almost unanimous 
approval of the scientific world. With faith and 
sturdy perseverance, he adhered to the plan, and 
steadily resisted all attempts to overthrow it. 

In the thirty-two years during which he admin- 
istered the great trust, he never swerved from his 
first purpose ; and he succeeded at last in realizing 
the ideas with which he started. But it has taken 
all that time to get rid of the incumbrance with 
which Congress had overloaded the Institution. 
In this work Professor Henry taught the valuable 
lesson to all founders and supporters of colleges, 
that they should pay less for brick and mortar, 



362 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

and more for brains. Under the first orders im- 
posed upon him by Congress, he was required to 
expend twenty-five thousand dollars a year in pur- 
chasing books. By wise resistance he managed to 
lengthen out the period for that expenditure ten 
years ; and a few years ago he had the satisfaction 
of seeing Congress remove from the Institution 
the heavy load, by transferring the Smithsonian Li- 
brary to the Library of Congress. The fifty-eight 
thousand volumes and forty thousand pamphlets, 
of rare scientific value, which are now upon our 
shelves, have added greatly to the value of the 
national library; but their care and preservation 
would soon have absorbed the resources of the 
Smithsonian. When Congress shall have taken 
the other incumbrance, the National Museum, off 
the hands of the Institution, by making fit pro- 
vision for the care of the great collection, they 
will have done still more to realize the ideas of 
Professor Henry. 

He has stood by our side in all these years, 
meeting every great question of science with that 
calm spirit which knew no haste and no rest. At 
the call of his government he discovered new 
truths, and mustered them into its service. The 
twelve hundred light-houses that shine on our 



JOSEPH HENRY. 363 

shores, the three thousand buoys along our rivers 
and coasts, testify to his faithfulness and efficiency. 

When it became evident that we could no longer 
depend upon the whale-fisheries to supply our bea- 
con-lights, he began to search for a substitute for 
sperm-oil; and after a thousand patient experi- 
ments he made the discovery that of all the oils of 
the world, when heated to 250° Fahrenheit, the 
common, cheap lard-oil of America became the 
best illuminant. That discovery gave us at once 
an unfailing supply, and for many years saved the 
treasury a hundred thousand dollars a year. 

He had no such pride of authorship as to cling 
to his own methods when a better could be found. 
He has recently tested the qualities of petroleum 
as an illuminant, and recommended its use for the 
smaller lights. In instances far too numerous to 
be recounted, we have long had this man as our 
counsellor, our guide, and our friend. 

During all the years of his sojourn among us, 
there has been one spot in this city across which 
the shadow of partisan politics has never fallen ; 
and that was the ground of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. We have seen in this city, at least one 
great, high trust so faithfully discharged for a 
third of a century that no breath of suspicion has 



364 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ever dimmed its record. The Board of Regents 
have seen Professor Henry's accounts all closed ; 
and, after the most rigid examination, the unani- 
mous declaration is made, that, to the last cent, 
during the whole of that period, his financial ad- 
ministration was as faultless and complete as his 
discoveries in science. The blessing of such an 
example in this city ought at least to do something 
to reconcile these men of science to the loss they 
suffered when their friend was called to serve the 
government at its capital. 

Remembering his great career as a man of sci- 
ence, as a man who served his government with 
singular ability and faithfulness, who was loved 
and venerated by every circle, who blessed with 
the light of his friendship the worthiest and the 
best, whose life added new lustre to the glory of 
the human race, we shall be most fortunate if 
ever in the future we see his like again. 



XII. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

Htfe ano Character of &lmrtia 8. Bootfj. 

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT HIRAM COLLEGE, O., 
JUNE 22, 1876. 



TO THE THOUSANDS OP NOBLE MEN AND "WOMEN WHOSE GENEROUS 
AMBITION WAS AWAKENED, WHOSE EARLY CULTURE WAS GUIDED, 
AND WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN MADE NOBLER, BY THE THOR- 
OUGHNESS OP HER INSTRUCTION, BY THE WISDOM OP 
HER COUNSEL, BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF HER 
FRIENDSHIP, AND THE PURITY OP HER 
LIFE, THIS TRIBUTE TO THE 
MEMORY OF 

ALMEDA A. BOOTH 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



XII. 

ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 

" The crown and head, 
The stately flower of female fortitude." 

"TV /TR. PRESIDENT, — You have called me to 
^ a duty at ouce most sad and most sacred. 
At every step of my preparation for its perform- 
ance, I have encountered troops of thronging 
memories that swept across the field of the last 
twenty-five years of my life, and so filled my heart 
with the lights and shadows of their joy and sorrow 
that I have hardly been able to marshal them into 
order, or give them coherent voice. I have lived 
over again the life of this place. I have seen again 
the groups of young and joyous students ascend- 
ing these green slopes, dwelling for a time on this 
peaceful height in happy and workful companion- 
ship, and then, with firmer step and with more 
serious and thoughtful faces, marching away to 
their posts in the battle of life. 

And still nearer and clearer have come back 1 

367 



368 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

the memories of that smaller band of friends, the 
leaders and guides of those who encamped on this 
training-ground. On my journey to this assembly 
it has seemed that they, too, were coming, and 
that here I should once more meet and greet them. 
And I haye not yet been able to realize that 
Almeda Booth will not be with us. After our 
great loss, how shall we gather up the fragments 
of the life we lived in this place ? We are mari- 
ners, treading the lonely shore in search of our 
surviving comrades, and the fragments of our good 
ship wrecked by the tempest. To her, indeed, 
it is no wreck. She has landed in safety, and 
ascended the immortal heights beyond our vision. 

What manner of woman she was, by what steps 
and through what struggles her character was 
developed, to what ends her life was directed, 
what she accomplished for herself and for us, and 
what rich fruitage may be gathered from the trees 
of her planting, I shall attempt to portray as best 
I can. 

We can study no life intelligently except in its 
relations to causes and results. Character is the 
chief element, for it is both a result and a cause, — 
the result of all the elements and forces that com- 
bined to form it, and the chief cause of all that is 
accomplished by its possessor. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 369 

Who, then, was Almeda Ann Booth ? and what 
were the elements and forces that formed her 
character and guided her life ? 

Every character is the joint product of nature 
and nurture. By the first, we mean those inborn 
qualities of body and mind inherited from parents, 
or, rather, from a long line of ancestors. "Who 
shall estimate the effect of those latent forces in- 
folded in the spirit of a new-born child, which 
may date back centuries, and find their origin in 
the unwritten history of remote ancestors ; forces, 
the germs of which, enveloped in the solemn mys- 
tery of life, have been transmitted silently from 
generation to generation, and never perish ? All- 
cherishing nature, provident and unforgetting, 
gathers up all these fragments, that nothing may 
be lost, but that all may re-appear in new combi- 
nations. Each new life is thus the "heir of all 
the ages," the possessor of qualities which only 
the events of life can unfold. 

By the second element, — nurture, or culture, 
— we designate all those influences which act 
upon this initial force of character to retard or 
strengthen its development. There has been much 
discussion to determine which of these elements 
plays the more important part in the formation of 



370 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

character. The truth doubtless is, that sometimes 
the one and sometimes the other is the greater 
force ; but, so far as life and character are depend- 
ent upon voluntary action, the second is no doubt 
the element of chief importance. 

Not enough attention has been paid to the 
marked difference between the situation and possi- 
bilities of a life developed here in the West during 
the first half of the present century, and those of 
a life nurtured and cultivated in an old and settled 
community like that of New England. 

Consider, for example, the measureless differ- 
ence between the early surroundings of John 
Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln. Both 
were possessed of great natural endowments. 
Adams was blessed with parents whose native 
force of character and whose vigorous and thor- 
ough culture have never been surpassed by any 
married pair in America. Young Adams was 
thoroughly taught by his mother until he had 
completed his tenth year; and then, accompany- 
ing his father to France, he spent two years in a 
training-school at Paris and three years in the 
university at Ley den. After two years of diplo- 
matic service under the skilful guidance of his 
facer's hand, he returned to America, and devoted 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 371 

three years to study at Harvard, where he was 
graduated at the age of twenty-one ; and three 
years later was graduated in the law under the 
foremost jurist of his time. With such parentage 
and such opportunities, who can wonder, that, by 
the time he reached the meridian of his life, he 
was a man of immense erudition, and had honored 
every great office in the gift of his country ? 

How startling the contrast, in every particular, 
between his early life and' that of Abraham Lin- 
coln ! The facts concerning the latter are too well 
known to require a statement. Born to an inher- 
itance of the extremest poverty, wholly unaided 
by his parents, surrounded by the rude forces of 
the wilderness, only one year in any school, never 
for a day master of his own time until he reached 
his majority, forcing his way to the profession of 
the law by the hardest and roughest road, and 
beginning its practice at twenty-eight years of age, 
yet by the force of unconquerable will and per- 
sistent hard work he attained a foremost place in 
his profession, 

" And, moving up from high to higher, 
Became, on fortune's crowning slope, 
The pillar of a people's hope, — 
The centre of a world's desire." 



372 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Who can tell what the results might have been 
if the situations of these two men had been re- 
versed? 

It is often remarked, as ground of encourage- 
ment to young men, that just such struggles as 
these in which Lincoln engaged are necessary to 
bring out the native force of character, and pro- 
duce great results; and no doubt this is partly 
true. But, where one succeeds under such cir- 
cumstances, how many thousands fail? 

Our people frequently refer, with pride, to the 
exceptionally prominent place which Ohio has 
taken in all the walks of public and professional 
life during the last twenty years. That promi- 
nence is probably due to the fact, that those 
citizens of Ohio who have been leaders of their 
generation during the last twenty years are the 
first-born of the pioneer founders of our State. 
The inspirations of the Revolution were still act- 
ing in full vigor upon the people of the original 
thirteen States when the settlement of Ohio began. 
By the law of natural selection, those only became 
pioneers who were best fitted, by natural energy 
and force of character, to conquer the difficulties 
attending such a career ; and their children have 
not only inherited a part of that energy, but have 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 373 

enjoyed means of culture which were far beyond 
the reach of the pioneers themselves. In old and 
settled communities, we find more culture ; in 
pioneer life, more force. And it will doubtless 
prove true, that, in succeeding generations, Ohio 
will produce a higher type of scholars, — men of 
arts and letters ; but it is also probable, that they 
will lose in rugged force a part, at least, of what 
they gain in culture. 

Striking as was the difference between the two 
examples referred to, the contrast of such condi- 
tions is still greater when applied to the possibil- 
ities of the culture and development of woman. 
Man is better fitted for a rough struggle with rude 
elements. His is a coarser fibre, his " the wrest- 
ling thews that throw the world." 

" Iron- jointed, supple-sinewed, he shall dive, and he shall 

run, 
Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl his lances in the 

sun." 

But woman's nature is of a finer fibre : her 
spirit is attuned to higher harmonies. "All 
dipped in angel-instincts," she craves more keenly 
than man the celestial food, — the highest culture 
which earth and heaven can give ; and her loss is 



374 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

far greater than his, when she is deprived of those 
means of culture so rarely found in pioneer life. 
Success in intellectual pursuits, under such condi- 
tions, is the strongest possible test of her char- 
acter. 

With these general reflections as guides to the 
study of the life we have met to commemorate, 
let us inquire what were the elements and condi- 
tions out of which that life grew. 

Almeda Ann Booth 1 was a child of the pio- 
neers, and of hardy New-England stock. Her fa- 
ther, Ezra Booth, was born near the Housatonic 
River, in Newton, Fairfield County, Conn., Feb. 
14, 1792; and her mother, Dorcas Taylor, was 
born in Great Barrington, Mass., June 30, 1800. 
Both were swept westward, in early childhood, by 
that tide of emigration which, in the beginning of 
the present century, began to people the wilder- 
ness of North-eastern Ohio. The precise date at 
which Ezra Booth came to the West, I have not 
ascertained. The parents of Dorcas Taylor came 
in 1813, and found a home in the woods of 
Nelson. 

As we know the Western Reserve to-day, with 

1 In the Booth family-Bible it is recorded Almedah; and she 
followed that spelling until she was twenty years of age. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 375 

its 350,000 people, its growing cities, its vast in- 
dustries, and its thousands of comfortable and 
elegant homes, we can hardly realize what it was 
when the parents of Miss Booth first saw it. 

At the beginning of the century it was an un- 
broken wilderness, with but 1,302 white inhab- 
itants. Indeed, in 1810 the whole number of 
white inhabitants within the present limits of 
Portage County was considerably less than the 
population of Hiram to-day. Between 1810 and 
1830, 17,000 pioneers had settled in this county, 
and 70,000 had found homes in the Western 
Reserve. They brought with them little wealth, 
and few of the comforts of life. Patient and 
courageous toil was the first necessity of the men 
and women who wrought the transformation of 
that wilderness into the beautiful and happy 
homes inherited by their children. But the pio- 
neers did not forget the faith and traditions of 
their fathers. While building their homes, they 
planted also the school and the church, and thus 
laid deep and strong the foundations of pros- 
perity. 

In the midst of such stirring scenes, Ezra Booth 
began his career. He was a man of more than 
ordinary powers of mind, — gentle, affectionate, 



376 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

impressible, and deeply religious. His early in- 
tellectual training did not go beyond the rudi- 
ments taught in the common schools of Connecti- 
cut. But he was an inveterate reader of books; 
and the armful of choice volumes that lay on the 
shelves of his little library was probably a greater 
number than could have been found in one house 
out of every thousand on the Reserve. Possessed 
of slender means, he adopted a profession which 
rendered the acquirement of wealth well-nigh 
impossible. He early entered the ministry of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and was assigned to 
a circuit of nearly a thousand miles, embracing in 
its' range the township of Nelson; and there, in 
1819, he married Dorcas Taylor, and fixed his 
home. 

Soon after entering the ministry, he sent eleven 
silver dollars to England to purchase a Greek 
lexicon ; and he so far mastered the language 
as to read the Greek Testament with ease. He 
used to say, that, in the early days of his min- 
istry, he and a Mr. Charles Elliott were the only 
Methodist preachers west of the Alleghanies who 
were able to read Greek. 

In a small frame house about three and a half 
miles eastward from this place, on the farm now 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 377 

owned by Mrs. Ferris Couch, Almecla, the only 
child of Ezra and Dorcas Booth, was bom on the 
fifteenth clay of August, 1823. She inherited a 
hardy and vigorous constitution, a clear and 
powerful intellect, and a spirit of remarkable 
sweetness and gentleness. These qualities of 
mind and heart shone with clear and steady 
light, from early childhood until her last hour. 

Her life appears to fall into three very distinct 
periods, separated from each other by marked 
events. Indeed, she may be said to have lived 
three separate lives. These will appear as we 
review her history. 

Her first twelve years were passed in Nelson. 
All the traditions that have come to us from that 
period are redolent of the fragrance of a sweet 
and loving childhood. In her fourth year she 
attended the district school at Nelson Centre, a 
mile and a half distant from her home. The 
school was taught at that time by Miss Jane 
Hopkins, afterwards Mrs. Nathan Waclsworth. 
How long she continued with this teacher, I have 
not learned ; but, at the close of Miss Hopkins's 
school, Almeda received a locket, as the prize 
for making the greatest progress in spelling. 
Miss Clarissa Colton was also her teacher in 



378 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Nelson for several terms, and was remembered 
with great affection in after-years. I have not 
been able to learn the names of her other teachers 
in that place. The honored President of the 
Board of Trustees of this college, who saw her 
frequently when she was a little child, tells us 
this pleasing and characteristic incident : — 

When Almeda was about twelve years of age, 
she used to puzzle her teachers with questions, 
and distress them by correcting their mistakes ; 
and one of them (a male teacher, of course), who 
was too proud to acknowledge the corrections of 
a child, called upon Mr. Udall 1 for help and advice 
in regard to a point of dispute between them. 
Mr. Udall told him he was evidently in error, 
and must acknowledge his mistake. The teacher 
was manly enough to follow this wise advice, 
and thereafter made the little girl his friend and 
helper in the scholastic difficulties which he en- 
countered. It was like her to help him quietly, 
and without boasting. During her whole life, 
what one of her friends ever heard an intimation 
from her that she had ever achieved an intellect- 
ual triumph over anybody in the world ? 

In 1835 her family removed to Mantua, about 

1 The President aforesaid. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 379 

four miles to the north-west of this place, where 
they resided for more than thirty years. Her 
progress had been so great under the instruction 
of her favorite teacher, Miss Colton, that her par- 
ents induced that young lady also to remove to 
Mantua. Almeda's progress as a scholar was 
continuous and rapid. Dr. Squire, who knew 
her well from the time she first attended the 
district school at Mantua, in the winter of 1835- 
36, tells us that " she was known as a thorough 
scholar, the best speller in the district, and, 
though dressed in the plainest style possible, 
was the pride of the neighborhood for her 
youthful attainments and gentleness." 

Hon. A. G. Riddle, who knew her as a child in 
Mantua, has drawn this charming picture : — 

"You ask me for my recollections of Almeda Booth. 
What I can recall of her associates her with a single spring 
and summer, — idyllic, as one long day of green foliage, 
apple-blossoms, humming bees, and sunshine, coming from 
nothing which preceded, and connected with nothing which 
followed. 

" There was a beautiful, secluded neighborhood in north- 
east Mantua, where two little-travelled highways crossed. 
In the north-west angle thus formed stood the farmhouse, 
the homestead of Deacon Seth Harmon, my home at that 
time. The east-and-west road in its front was filled with 



380 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

cherry-trees. South of this highway stood a grand old and 
quite extensive apple-orchard, over the tops of which, and 
two or three hundred yards away, embowered in fruit 
and forest-trees, could be seen the roof of Almeda's home. 
A winding foot-path led down from it to the road in front 
of the Harmon homestead. 

"I knew Almeda as an only child, — a maiden of twelve 
or thirteen years, well-grown, ruddy-cheeked, and buxom. 
Martha Harmon, dark and slight, was of about the same 
age. They were quite constant companions. 

" About the Harmon house and grounds, in the highway, 
along that foot-path, through the orchard, amid falling apple- 
blossoms and humming bees, I can see and hear these two 
laughing, light-hearted girls ; and that is all. I can connect 
them with no incident, or any certain time. 

" I have a sort of an impression, and only that, of attend- 
ing a winter school with Almeda. 

" She must have had the power of fixing herself well in 
one's memory. I did not see her again for ten years, and 
knew her at once ; and I recall the lively satisfaction I felt 
at being remembered by her. Through all the years since, I 
have been familiar with her name, though meeting her but 
seldom." 

There must necessarily be much loneliness in 
the life of an only child. That Almeda felt this, 
is evident from one of her early essays which 
has been preserved, and in which she says, — 
"I am one of those unfortunate beings whom 






ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 381 

Mrs. Sigourney so much pities, — a person destitute 
of brothers and sisters." And yet, for a thought- 
ful child, such a life had its compensations. She 
found early and sweet companionship with her 
father in his studies, and, like him, became &a 
ardent lover of books. At that period few 
juvenile books were published; and the stirring 
works of legend and romance rarely found their 
way to the shelves of a preacher's library. The 
extent and character of her early reading I have 
not learned ; but she once told me that she read 
Rollin's "Ancient History" and Gibbon's "De- 
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire " when she 
was twelve years of age. I doubt if, at so early 
an age, any person in this assembly had done as 
much. 

At the age of fourteen she had pretty thor- 
oughly mastered the studies then taught in the 
district school.; and, for a short time, she at- 
tended a select school in Painesville, boarding at 
the house of a Rev. Mr. Winans. When she was 
seventeen, she taught her first school, in a log 
schoolhouse, near her home in Mantua. She 
next engaged to teach, for five months, the school 
near what was known as the "Brick Tavern," 
south of Mantua Centre. There, as in her first 



382 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

school, she was very popular; but she became 
homesick, and by the aid of friends secured a 
change in the contract, by which the term was 
shortened to three months. She greatly disliked 
the custom of that time which required her to 
" board around the district ; " because it resulted 
in such a waste of her time, and cut her off from 
the opportunity of reading which she so highly 
prized. But she conquered all the discomforts of 
the work, and continued to teach, using for the 
advancement of her own culture the pittance 
then paid to a woman teacher, which sometimes 
did not exceed four dollars per month. 1 

1 Dr. Squire has furnished me with the following interesting 
facts concerning Miss Booth's teaching in Mantua. He says, 
" I learn from the records of the Booth school-district, that 
Almeda taught there during the winter 1844-45. The studies 
taught were reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and geogra- 
phy. The term ended Feh. 14, 1845 ; wages, eight dollars per 
month. The report is signed 'Almeda A. Booth.' Similar re- 
port for the same district for the term ending March 6, 1846 : 
wages seven dollars per month. For same district, term ending 
Aug. 28, 1846 : average daily attendance, sixteen. Philosophy, 
history, and botany taught, in addition to common branches : 
wages four dollars per month. Report for term ending March 5, 
1847 : algebra and common branches ; wages nine dollars per 
month. The month, at that time, probably meant twenty-six 
days of school." It will be seen that wages for summer were 
much lower than for winter. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 383 

In 1842 and 1843 she attended during several 
terms the Asbury Seminary, at Chagrin Falls, 
which at that time was under the charge of L. D. 
Williams, who was afterwards a distinguished 
professor in Meadville College. In later years 
she frequently spoke of him in terms of the high- 
est respect and reverence. I have not been able 
to learn the range of her studies at Chagrin Falls ; 
but she has left a small package of essays, written 
as school exercises while there, which exhibit that 
clearness and masterful force of expression so 
characteristic of her style in later years. The 
penmanship bears a few traces of the formal 
school-girl hand, especially in the construction of 
the capital letters; but it also shows the outline 
of that elegant and graceful chirography with 
which we are now so familiar. The brief mar- 
ginal notes and criticisms of her instructors indi- 
cate the pride and satisfaction they felt in her 
development. One of these notes is signed " Mat- 
tison ; " another, " H. H. Moore ; " and another is 
in these words: "Very good. The errors are 
few, and none of them bad ones. L. D. W." (evi- 
dently L. D. Williams). 

I have read these short essays with a deep and 
mournful interest. Though written as formal 



384 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

school exercises, they are charming pictures of 
the progress of her mind and the genuine earnest- 
ness of her convictions. To quote them here, 
however, would be unjust to her maturer fame. 
Among them is a dialogue, in her handwriting, 
between herself and Miss Elizabeth Hayclen, 
daughter of the late Rev. William Hay den. 
Even at that early age, Miss Booth exhibited 
unusual aptitude for that species of dramatic com- 
position in which she subsequently developed so 
much power. 

Until she reached the age of twenty-four, her 
life had been devoted to home duties, to study, 
and teaching. In the family of her nearest neigh- 
bor, she had formed the intimate acquaintance of 
Martyn Harmon, a young man of rare and bril- 
liant promise. Like herself, he was an enthusiastic 
student. Ambitious of culture, he had pushed 
his way through the studies of Meadville College, 
and was graduated with honor. He had given 
Almeda his love, and received in return the rich 
gift of her great heart. The day of their wedding 
had been fixed. He was away in Kentucky, teach- 
ing ; while she was in Mantua, preparing to adorn 
and bless the home of their love. On the 6th of 
March, 1848, he died of some sudden illness, and 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 385 

was buried near Frankfort, Ky. Funeral services 
were held in Mantua, at which Almeda took her 
place as chief mourner. Her plans of life and the 
hopes of her earthly future seemed buried in his 
grave. 

This event closes the first period of her history. 
It seemed for a time to end her ambition and her 
hopes. Her heart was wedded by ties as sacred 
as any which marriage can consecrate. From that 
time forward she walked alone in the solitude of 
virgin widowhood. 

In her subsequent life she rarely spoke of the 
suffering of that period ; but she never ceased to 
cherish the memory of Martyn Harmon as that of 
an immortal husband who awaited her coming in 
the life beyond. Her faithfulness to him excluded 
the thought of marriage with any other. 

After such a loss, what was left to a soul like 
hers? To her heart, the consolations of the 
Christian faith ; and, to her life, the power of serv- 
ing and blessing others. It is one of the pre- 
cious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in 
unselfish work. Patient and uncomplaining, with 
a spirit chastened and sweetened by her great 
sorrow, Almeda gathered up the fragments of her 
broken life, and devoted her powers to the work 
of teaching. 



386 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

Making her father's home the centre of her 
activities, she commenced teaching in the most 
difficult and unpromising districts in her neigh- 
borhood. Her success was such as few teachers 
in a similar field have ever achieved. She found 
happiness in her work, and was rewarded with the 
admiration and love of those whose minds were 
moulded and guided by her influence. 

Besides this, she found solace and strength in 
her old habit of reading. Her spirit, ranging 
beyond the narrow circle of her every-day life, 
found in books a noble companionship with the 
good and great of other days. 

I find among her papers a few pages of personal 
reminiscences, written twenty-one years ago, which 
probably refer to the period of her life of which 
I am now speaking. I am sure her friends will 
listen to her own words with more pleasure than to 
any thing that I can say. She writes : — 

" Through the mists and clouds of later life, remembrance 
brings a warm glow to our hearts, as we think of the friends 
we loved, and the books we read. Yes, the books ! Who 
has not some old, torn, dingy favorite of a book, that he 
remembers with more affection than any volume he has seen 
for many a year? I remember one that to me, in those 
years, was a source of never-failing delight. I fondly cher- 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 387 

ish the memory of that old book, both for itself and its 
pleasant associations. I chanced to find it in a family where 
I was allowed to visit, into whose possession it had come in 
payment of a debt for which nothing else could be obtained. 
It was a bound volume of a periodical that had been started 
in Philadelphia by some lover of literature who mistook the 
tastes of the age ; and his magazine soon failed for want of 
patronage. It had been bound ; but when I was so happy 
as to make its acquaintance, its leaves had escaped from 
their confinement, causing me no little trouble as I turned 
over the unwieldy mass. It contained no original matter, 
but choice selections from English and American literature. 
Here I first read ' L 'Allegro ' and • II Penseroso ; ' and, 
though I was delighted with the 

' Goddess fair and free, 
In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne, 
And by men heart-easing Mirth,' 

yet by the time I had read through to — 

' These pleasures melancholy give, 
And I with thee will choose to live,' 

I usually felt like giving in my adhesion to the 'goddess 
sage and holy.' There, too, I read 'Mazeppa,' — that wild 

ride related 

' After dread Pultowa's day, 
When fortune left the royal Swede; ' 

and I could never understand how, when 'twas done, the king 
could have been 'an hour asleep.' There were McKenzie's 
' Man of Feeling ; ' Goldsmith's simple, natural, and inimit- 



388 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

able * Vicar of Wakefield ; ' also those stories of exquisite 
beauty and pathos, ' The Lights and Shadows of Scottish 
Life.' And there I first found the letters of our own Dr. 
Franklin, and his life, written by himself, for his son, which 
I could never sufficiently admire : it seemed so truthful and 
honest, as he related the indiscretions of his early years, and 
remembered his errors, one by one. But I read nothing in 
that book with more thrilling interest than the old English 
ballad of ' Chevy Chase.' As I read how that famous hunt 
fell out, how noble knights and barons bold went down in 
death, how brave Lord Percy fell, and Scotland's pride, Earl 
Douglas, too, my enthusiasm was never chilled by a thought 
that I was reading events ' totally fictitious,' as Spaulding 
tells us they are. But, of all the treasures I there found, I 
oftenest read the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, 
which have always been regarded as models of epistolary 
composition. It is objected that she sometimes seems un- 
amiable and unfeeling ; yet, even then, she is so witty and 
charming, one is almost tempted to forgive her. Still, I 
think, there is reason for this charge against her earliest 
letters. The absurdities and follies of the gay and courtly 
circle in which she moved appeared so ridiculous, in the light 
of her strong understanding, that, in letters to her friends, 
she often hit off those she met with the severest sarcasm. 
Addison, Pope, and other distinguished writers of that age, 
were proud of her friendship ; but Pope quailed before her 
peerless wit and sarcasm, and from a most ardent friend 
turned to an implacable enemy." 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 389 

After describing, at some length, the character 
and career of Lady Montague, the manuscript 
concludes : — 

" She [Lady Montague] was proficient in Greek and Latin, 
and seems to have read almost every thing that had ever been 
written in any language. In a letter to her daughter, in rela- 
tion to the education of her granddaughter, she says, ' Learn- 
ing, if she has a real taste for it, will not only make her 
contented, but happy. No entertainment is so cheap as 
reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.' Thus much for the 
old book. I saw its friendly, honest face, soiled and time- 
worn, only a few months ago ; but it is not so perishable as 
earth's frail children. I gazed upon it with mingled emotions 
of pain and pleasure ; for I remembered that the dear ones, 
who in those happy hours had read from that book with me, 
were all gone. The glad voices of seven children once rang 
through that home ; but now every one is hushed in death, 
and the poor, stricken parents are left alone. I remembered 
when the father — a man of uncommon tenderness of feel- 
ing — said to me, a few days before his last child was laid 
in the grave, his voice trembling, and his eyes full of tears, 
1 Oh ! I had hoped the Lord would spare me one child ; but 
his will be done.' 

" So that old book is very dear to me." 

This charming sketch of the old book is a strik- 
ing picture of her own mind and heart during the 
early days of her sorrow. 

But, by slow degrees, her sorrow gave place to 



390 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

ambition for larger culture. In the autumn of 
1848 she attended a select school at Mantua 
Centre, taught by Norman Dunshee, and, among 
her other studies, began Latin. In the winter of 
1849-50 she taught the school in the Darwin- 
Atwater district ; and, in the winter of 1850-51, 
taught at Hiram Rapids, her last district school. 
She is still remembered with enthusiastic affec- 
tion by the people of that neighborhood. 

Her success as a teacher was well known to 
Charles D. Wilber, at whose suggestion President 
Hayden secured her services to the young Eclec- 
tic; and in the spring of 1851 she came here as 
a teacher in the English department. Up to that 
time no lady had taught in the Eclectic, except 
in the primary department, which was established 
at the opening of the institution, in November, 
1850, and maintained for several years. Before 
the end of her first term, the trustees found that 
they had drawn a rich prize, in securing her ser- 
vices in the institution. 

The Eclectic was compelled to create its own 
scholarship and culture. Very few of its early 
students had gone beyond the ordinary studies of 
the district school ; and a large majority of them 
needed thorough discipline in the common English 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 391 

branches. I doubt if any teacher at Hiram was 
equal to Miss Booth in the power to inspire such 
students with the spirit of earnest, hard work, for 
the love of it. 

In August next it will be twenty-five years 
since I first saw her. I came to the Eclectic 
as a student, in the fall term of 1851 ; and, a few 
days after the beginning of the term, I saw a class 
of three, reciting in mathematics, — geometry, I 
think. They sat on one of the red benches, in 
the centre aisle of the lower chapel. I had never 
seen a geometry ; and, regarding both teacher and 
class with a feeling of reverential awe for the 
intellectual height to which they had climbed, I 
studied their faces so closely that I seem to see 
them now as distinctly as I saw them then. And 
it has been my good fortune since that time to 
claim them all as intimate friends. The teacher 
was Thomas Munnell; and the members of his 
class were William B. Hazen, George A. Baker, 
and Almeda A. Booth. 

Let us pause here to consider the situation and 
attainments of Miss Booth in 1851, at the begin- 
ning of what we may call her second life. She 
was twenty -eight years of age. In many respects 
her character was fully matured. She had enjoyed 



392 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

somewhat better advantages than most women of 
that period, who, born of the pioneers and un- 
blessed by wealth, were reared in the narrow circle 
of country life. Though she had made the most 
of her opportunities, yet she had hardly entered 
the circle of that larger scholarship and broader 
culture which women enjoy in older communities. 

As a means of estimating more accurately her 
abilities and merits, let us contrast her attainments 
at that time with those of a woman of wider fame 
who was greatly admired by Miss Booth, and who 
was very like her in intellectual force. 

Margaret Fuller was born at Cambridge, Mass., 
and from early life breathed the atmosphere of the 
highest culture of New England. Her father, a 
graduate of Harvard, and accomplished French 
scholar, thoroughly read in general history and 
literature, a prominent lawyer, and for many years 
a distinguished member of Congress, early devoted 
himself personally to the work of his daughter's 
education. At six years of age she was able to 
read Latin ; and soon her young imagination was 
fired by the strong and beautiful legends of classic 
history and mythology. Wandering at will in her 
father's well-filled library, and gathering such food 
as her young spirit could assimilate, she read, 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 393 

when eight years of age, " Romeo and Juliet," the 
quaint and wonderful humor of Cervantes, and 
the bright pictures of Parisian life portrayed in 
the pages of Moliere. In her nineteenth year she 
had finished a thorough course in one of the best 
training-schools of Massachusetts. At twenty-two 
she had mastered the German language, and read 
its principal authors. At twenty-three she was 
teaching the languages, and attracting to herself 
the minds and hearts of all who came within her 
reach. Ralph Waldo Emerson says of her at that 
period, " She was an active and inspiring com- 
panion and correspondent ; and all the heart, 
thought, and nobleness of New England seemed 
at that moment related to her, and she to it." At 
twenty-five she was translating the correspondence 
of Goethe, was devouring the works of Madame 
de Stael in French, and of Epictetus in Latin ; 
and was ranging at will through the realms of 
English literature and philosophy. At twenty- 
eight she became the editor of a literary journal, 
and was assisted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
George Ripley, and many other prominent writers. 
Her wide acquaintance, and still wider correspond- 
ence, placed at her command the culture and 
literary wealth of both hemispheres. From that 



394 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

time forward she rose rapidly from height to 
height, until a tragic death closed her career in 
1850. Her native powers of mind were undoubt- 
edly great ; and she would not have remained un- 
known in any sphere of life, however humble. 
But it must be acknowledged that very much of 
her success was due to her rare opportunities for 
early culture. 

Contrast with this brilliant picture the situa- 
tion of Miss Booth at twenty-eight years of age. 
We have followed the history of her toilful life 
up to that period. We saw her moving in a nar- 
row and humble sphere, creating her own means 
of culture, unaided by the companionship of 
superior minds to inspire and guide her develop- 
ment. After the light of her young life had been 
quenched in a great sorrow, we saw her turning 
sadly away from the wreck of her hopes, and 
beginning the hard task of creating the new con- 
ditions out of which she might gain a broader, 
deeper culture, and become more useful to her 
generation. 

We found her not farther advanced in technical 
scholarship at twenty-eight years of age, than 
Margaret Fuller was at seventeen ; and even then 
her further advancement depended upon what she 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 395 

could accomplish for herself, while teaching six 
or seven great classes a day, and discharging the 
other numberless duties which fell to her lot as 
chief lady teacher in a mixed school of two hun- 
dred and fifty scholars. 

Highly as I appreciate the character of Mar- 
garet Fuller, greatly as I admire her remarkable 
abilities, I do not hesitate to say, that in no four 
years of her life did her achievements, brilliant as 
they were, equal the work accomplished by Miss 
Booth during the four years that followed her 
coming to Hiram. 

I was never a member of a class that recited to 
her, and I cannot speak of her work as a teacher 
as seen from the stand-point of a pupil ; but I know 
from personal observation, and from the unanimous 
testimony of thousands who were so fortunate as 
to be her pupils, that her power over classes as a 
whole, and over every member, was very great and 
beneficent. In the earlier years of her teaching 
here, she frequently took advanced classes in 
grammar and arithmetic, numbering from ninety 
to one hundred each. Without any parade of 
authority, without appearing to govern at all, she 
always held them in most admirable order ; and, 
what was still more remarkable, each pupil felt 



396 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

that his relations to her were those of very direct 
personal responsibility and sympathy ; and that he 
owed her a personal apology for any dereliction 
or failure on his part, and a debt of affectionate 
gratitude for the largest measure of his success. 
Her classes in botany and astronomy were always 
filled with enthusiasm for their work, and with 
affectionate admiration for Miss Booth. 

She did not deliver formal lectures on these 
subjects ; but she carried to almost every recita- 
tion a memorandum of brief notes, from which, 
daring the course of the lesson, she threw out 
fertile and striking suggestions which illuminated 
the subject, and made every pupil feel that to be 
absent from a recitation of her class was to suffer 
personal loss. I have found among her papers 
many of these memoranda, full of strong and 
beautiful suggestions. 

Besides doing her full share of the heavy work 
of the class-room, Miss Booth had special charge 
of the ladies, and, from 1852 onward, devoted 
much time to them as their confidential counsellor 
and friend. There are hundreds of noble women 
who have worn the royal crown of maternity these 
many years, — and some of them are present to-day, 
— whose hearts are still full of precious memories 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 397 

of those familiar lectures, or rather conversations, 
in the lower chapel, in which Miss Booth gave 
them the benefit of her rich experience and wise 
counsel in the conduct of life. The notes of some 
of these conversations I have found among her 
manuscripts. One was written out in full, in which 
she unfolded her conception of how solemn a thing 
it is to live, and to perform those duties which fall 
to the lot of woman. 

She aided in organizing and maintaining the 
first ladies' literary society in the Eclectic, and 
for several years took an active part in its pro- 
ceedings. Her essays prepared for its meetings 
are models of sound judgment and of finished, 
graceful style. 

I first became acquainted with her qualities as 
a writer during the spring term of 1852, when 
Cory don E. Fuller and I were appointed to aid 
her in writing a colloquy for the public exercises 
at the close of the school year. Having chosen a 
theme founded on historical events in the time of 
Pope Leo X., she sketched the outline of the 
piece, assigned portions to her two associates, set 
them to reading up the history of the period to 
which the piece related, directed and corrected 
their work, and adapted it to her own, cast the 



398 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

parts, criticised and trained those who were to 
perform them, took the most difficult and least 
desirable part herself, and put the piece on the 
stage with such skill as to surprise and delight the 
great audience that assembled under the bower 
built among the apple-trees north of the Seminary. 
I esteemed myself especially fortunate and highly 
honored in being chosen to aid her in that work. 
My admiration of her knowledge and ability was 
unbounded. And even now, after the glowing 
picture painted upon my memory in the strong 
colors of youthful enthusiasm has been shaded 
down by the colder and more sombre tints which 
a quarter of a century has added, I still regard 
her work on that occasion as possessing great 
merit. I have read again some of the pages of 
the faded manuscript, a few of which survive ; 
and I find that her part of it still justifies much 
of my early enthusiasm. 

To her marked success in this piece is due the 
fact, that, during many subsequent years, an origi- 
nal drama — or, in the school dialect, a " collo- 
quy " — was the most attractive feature of com- 
mencement-days. There are many present to-day 
who remember these colloquies, — that of 1853, 
founded on the Book of Esther ; " Burr and Blen- 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 399 

nerhassett," in 1854, when O. P. Miller and Philip 
Burns played the heavy parts of Adams and Jef- 
ferson, and Rhodes, Pettibone, and Williams, the 
less pious but more exciting roles of Arnold, 
Burr, and Blennerhassett ; " Lafayette," in 1856 ; 
" Ivanhoe," in 1857, in which the stirring scenes 
of the Crusades were revived; " The Conspiracy 
of Orsini," in 1858 (suggested by the reading of 
Ruffini's " Doctor Antonio"), in which Elias A. 
Ford trod the stage as Louis Napoleon, with 
Electa Beecher as empress, and Amzi Atwater as 
prime minister, while White, Chamberlin, and 
Ferry were treacherously seeking his imperial life. 
Then there was "The Highland Chiefs," in 1859, 
in which Henry James and Henry White were 
Lochiel and Mc Alpine, in deadly feud with Cham- 
berlin and Dudley, Lords of Glencoe and Kep- 
pock, mustering their clans for battle to determine 
which of these fierce knights should win the 
hands of Sophia Williams and Myra Robbins, the 
Ellen and the Margaret of the hour. There was 
" Pickwickian Politics," in 1860, with Brown aud 
Bennett as stars; and "Zenobia," in 1861, in 
which Mary E. White was the proud Queen of 
Palmyra, with half a score of young men as bold 
Romans leading her away in triumph. In all 



400 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

these pieces, the parts which were surest to touch 
the heart, and win approval, were those written by 
Miss Booth. They showed how varied were her 
intellectual resources, and with what power and 
grace she could employ them. 

Occupied as she was in the daily discharge of 
such exacting duties, one would think she had 
small leisure for any other work. But we shall 
see what more she was able to accomplish. She 
saw, that, so long as she taught only the English 
studies, the bright and ambitious pupils to whom 
she was so strongly attached would pass out of 
her reach by entering upon studies in which she 
could not guide them. The desire to avoid this 
gave a new impulse to her ambition for higher 
scholarship ; and in the autumn of 1851 she began 
those studies necessary to fit her for teaching in 
the higher grades. When a class was formed in 
any thing she had not mastered, she arranged to 
have it recite before or after school-hours, and 
took her place as one of its members. Thus she 
kept in advance of her own pupils, and abreast 
with the foremost students of the institution. 

I am not certain when she began Greek ; but 
I remember that she and I were members of the 
class that began Xenophon's " Anabasis," in the fall 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 401 

term of 1852. Near the close of that term, I also 
began to teach in the Eclectic, and thereafter, 
like her, could only keep up my studies outside 
of my own class-hours. In mathematics and the 
physical sciences, I was far behind her; but we 
were nearly at the same place in Greek and Latin, 
each having studied them about three terms. She 
had made her home at President Hayden's, almost 
from the first ; and I became a member of his family 
at the beginning of the winter term of 1852-53. 
Thereafter, for nearly two years, she and I studied 
together, and recited in the same classes (frequent- 
ly without other associates), till we had nearly 
completed the classical course. 

From a diary which I then kept, and in which 
my own studies are recorded, I am able to state, 
quite accurately, what she accomplished in the 
classics, from term to term, in the two following 
years. During the winter and spring terms of 
1853, she read Xenophon's " Memorabilia " entire, 
reciting to Professor Dunshee. In the summer 
vacation of 1853, twelve of the more advanced 
students engaged Professor Dunshee as a tutor 
for one month. John Harnit, H. W. Everest, 
Philip Burns, C. C. Foote, Miss Booth, and I were 
of the number. A literary society was formed, in 



402 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

which all took part. During those four weeks, 
besides taking an active part in the literary exer- 
cises of the society, Miss Booth read thoroughly, 
and for the first time, the " Pastorals " of Virgil, — 
that is, the " Georgics " and " Bucolics " entire, — 
and the first six books of Homer's " Iliad," accom- 
panied by a thorough drill in the Latin or Greek 
grammar at each recitation. I am sure that none 
of those who recited with her would say she was 
behind the foremost in the thoroughness of her 
work or the elegance of her translations. 

During the fall term of 1853, she read one 
hundred pages of Herodotus, and about the same 
amount of Livy. During that term also, Professors 
Dunshee and Hull, and Miss Booth and I, met at 
her room two evenings of each week, to make a 
joint translation of the book of Romans. Pro- 
fessor Dunshee contributed his studies of the Ger- 
man commentators De Wette and Tholuck ; and 
each of the translators made some special study 
for each meeting. How nearly we completed the 
translation I do not remember; but I do remember 
that the contributions and criticisms of Miss Booth 
were remarkable for suggestiveness and sound 
judgment. Our work was more thorough than 
rapid ; for I find this entry in my diary for Dec. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 403 

15, 1853 : " Translation Society sat three nours at 
Miss Booth's room, and agreed upon the transla- 
tion of nine verses." 

During the winter term of 1853-54, she con- 
tinued to read Livy, and also read the whole of 
Demosthenes " On the Crown." The members of 
the class in Demosthenes were Miss Booth, A. 
Hull, C. C. Foote, and myself. 

During the spring term of 1854, she read the 
"Germania" and "Agricola" of Tacitus, and a 
portion of Hesiod. 

In the autumn of 1854, having secured from the 
Board of Trustees a leave of absence for one year, 
she entered the Senior class of Oberlin College. 
Though she had not yet completed several of the 
important Junior studies, yet during her one year 
in college she not only brought up all arrears, but 
thoroughly accomplished all the work of the Senior 
year, and in August, 1855, was graduated as 
Bachelor of Arts in the full classical course, rank- 
ing among the very first in her class. Three years 
later she received the honorary degree of Master 
of Arts. 

A student no farther advanced than Miss 
Booth was in 1851, usually needs three years of 
preparatory study to enter the Freshman year, 



404 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

and four years more to complete the course. 
But in the four years that followed her coming 
to Hiram, she taught ten full terms, prepared her- 
self for college, and completed with remarkable 
thoroughness the full course of college study. If 
any man or woman has done more in the same 
length of time, I do not know it. It should be 
mentioned, to the honor of Oberlin College, that, 
but for the wise and liberal policy which opened 
the full course of study to women, Miss Booth 
could hardly have taken the bachelor's degree 
anywhere in this country. 

She returned to Hiram. at the beginning of the 
fall term of 1855, and for ten years, without inter- 
mission, devoted herself to the work of teaching. 
Each year added to her thoroughness in the class- 
room, and increased her influence over students. 
Besides taking a few of the more advanced 
classes in the ordinary studies, she taught the 
higher mathematics, and Latin and Greek, main- 
taining her habit of making special preparation 
for each recitation. She handled these classes 
also with remarkable thoroughness and success. 
I cannot speak from personal knowledge of the 
later teachers of Latin and Greek in this insti- 
tution ; but, during the time she was here, no 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 405 

one of her associates was her superior in those 
studies. 

As the earlier teachers were called away to 
other fields of duty, their places were supplied 
by selection from those who had been " Eclectic " 
students; and thus Miss Booth found herself 
associated with teachers whose culture she had 
guided, and who were attached to her by the 
strongest ties of friendship. I know how apt we 
are to exaggerate the merits of those we love ; 
but, making due allowance for this tendency, as 
I look back upon the little circle of teachers who 
labored here, under the leadership of our hon- 
ored and venerable friend Mr. Hayden, during 
the first six years of the Eclectic, and upon the 
younger group, associated with me from 1856 
until the breaking-out of the war, I think I 
wrong no one of them by saying, that for gener- 
ous friendship, and united, earnest work, I have 
never seen, and never expect to see, their like 
again. Enough new members were added to the 
corps of teachers from year to year to keep alive 
the freshness of young enthusiasm ; and yet 
enough experience and maturity of judgment 
was left to hold the school in a steady course of 
prosperity. 



406 PEESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

The influence of Miss Booth, especially during 
the later period to which I have referred, was not 
surpassed by any member of that circle. A 
majority of her associates had been her stu- 
dents, — the children of her intellect and heart. 
She had watched their growth with something 
akin to maternal pride ; and she welcomed them 
to that circle with no touch of envy, but with 
most generous and helpful friendship. I am sure 
that Rhodes, Everest, Atwater, Hinsdale, Miss 
Wilson, and the rest can never forget that golden 
age of our lives ; and all will agree with me, that 
one light at least shone always steady and clear, 
— the light that beamed upon us from the mind 
and heart of Almeda A. Booth. 

The few spare hours which the school-work left 
us were devoted to such pursuits as each pre- 
ferred ; but much study was done in common. 
I can name twenty or thirty books which will 
forever be doubly precious to me, because they 
were read and discussed in company with her. 
I can still read, between the lines, the memories 
of her first impression of the page, and her judg- 
ment of its merits. She was always ready to aid 
any friend with her best efforts. When I was in 
the hurry of preparing for a debate with Mr. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 407 

Denton in 1858, she read not less than eight or 
ten volumes, and made admirable notes for me, 
on those points which related to the topics of 
discussion. In the autumn of 1859, she read a 
large portion of Blackstone's " Commentaries," and 
enjoyed, with keenest relish, the strength of the 
author's thought, and the beauty of his style. 
From the rich stores of her knowledge, she gave 
with unselfish generosity. The foremost students 
had no mannish pride that made them hesitate to 
ask her assistance and counsel. In preparing 
their orations and debates, they eagerly sought 
her suggestions and criticisms. Everywhere the 
literary life of Hiram bore abundant marks of 
her guiding hand. 

It is quite probable that John Stuart Mill has 
exaggerated the extent to which his own mind 
and works were influenced by Harriet Mill. I 
should reject his opinion on that subject as a 
delusion, did I not know, from my own experi- 
ence as well as that of hundreds of Hiram stu- 
dents, how great a power Miss Booth exercised 
over the culture and opinions of her friends. 

From what I have said of her influence over 
young men, it must not be inferred that she was 
wanting in sympathy or influence with her own 



408 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

sex. It is true, that giddy and superficial women, 
who care more for the adornment of their bodies 
than for the enlightenment of their minds, were 
not strongly attracted to Miss Booth ; but by all 
the better class of thoughtful and earnest women 
she was loved with ardent and enthusiastic devo- 
tion. 

The war for the Union, which broke up so many 
happy circles, and changed the plans of so many 
lives, wrought great changes in Hiram, and swept 
into the fiery current a hundred of our best stu- 
dents. Their fortunes were watched with patri- 
otic pride and affection by those who remained to 
sustain the institution, and promote its* success. 
During those trying years, Miss Booth stood at 
her post of duty, always loyally faithful to her 
associates, and more indispensable to the institu- 
tion than ever. In one of her letters to me, writ- 
ten August, 1861, she said, — 

" In all my early forecastings of your future, and that of 
the noble men who went with you, I never counted upon 
the possibility of war ; and I hardly know how to adjust my 
mind to its dreadful realities. Ah, me ! to think what may 
come ! We shall follow you all with our hearts, and do our 
best to keep the light of the Eclectic burning. The task 
is a great one ; but at a time of such anxiety hard work is 
a blessing, and just now our hands are very full of it." 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 409 

Through the darkness of the war, and into the 
light of victory and peace, she worked on, reaping 
each year a larger and richer harvest of results. 

About the end of 1865, a new and sacred duty 
called her to leave the field in which for nearly 
fifteen years she had achieved such remarkable 
success. Her parents had become old and feeble, 
and her father had so far failed in body and mind 
as to need those tender personal services which 
none but she could render. Without a murmur, 
she closed the long period of her brilliant career at 
Hiram ; and, leaving a circle of which she was the 
chief ornament, she removed with her parents to 
Cuyahoga Falls, established a quiet and unpre- 
tending home, and began a new life of uncom- 
plaining self-sacrifice. During the first year of 
her residence there, she was manager and sole 
servant of her household, and with the tenderest 
filial piety demoted herself wholly to the care of 
her parents. In the autumn of 1866, her father's 
health had so far recovered, that, in addition to 
her home cares, she accepted the place of Assist- 
ant Principal in the Union Schools at Cuyahoga 
Falls, then under the superintendence of V. P. 
Kline, one of her Hiram students, and a cherished 
friend. There she continued to teach four years, 



410 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

when she was chosen as Superintendent of all the 
schools of the village, and for three years dis- 
charged the duties of that position with her wonted 
success. 

Her life at Cuyahoga Falls exhibited all her 
peculiar powers, and attracted the same enthusi- 
astic love which she had enjoyed among the stu- 
dents at Hiram. But her long and arduous work 
had begun to make inroads upon her health ; and, 
withdrawing from the superintendency of the 
schools, she gave private lessons to select classes 
in French and German and other advanced studies 
during the two succeeding years. At the close of 
1874, her health was prostrated by a dangerous 
and painful disease which required the most 
skilful professional treatment. Few, even of her 
most intimate friends, knew through what a terri- 
ble ordeal of bodily suffering she passed the last 
year of her life. In the autumn of 1875, she de- 
termined to remove to Cleveland, where she could 
receive the more constant attention of eminent 
physicians. 

Just before leaving Ohio, in October last, I 
called on her in Cleveland, where she was spend- 
ing a week near her physicians, and making ar- 
rangements for a change of residence. She showed 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 411 

no signs of depression of spirits. Patient and 
cheerful, she looked forward to the hope of re- 
gaining her health, and finding a home near the 
friends of her earlier life. I expressed the desire 
that she might yet do me the very great favor to 
train my boys for college. The tears filled her 
eyes as she said, " I should dearly love to do that ; 
it would seem like living our own lives over 
again ; " and then, pausing as if in doubt whether 
it were not self-praise, she added, " I believe I can 
teach the classics better than I could when I was 
in Hiram." She spoke of her friends in that 
warm and earnest way so peculiarly her own ; and 
I bade her good-by with the promise, and in the 
confident hope, that I would meet her in the Cen- 
tennial summer, and enjoy again the blessings of 
that friendship which for nearly a quarter of a 
century was one of the noblest and richest gifts 
that Heaven has vouchsafed to me. But it was 
ordered otherwise by a wisdom higher than ours. 
She removed to Cleveland on the 10th of Novem- 
ber last, with health apparently improving. She 
set in pleasant order her new home, in the midst 
of a little colony of her dear old friends. Jennie 
Eggleston was living with her ; Harry Rhodes and 
his wife, Henry James, and Virgil Kline, all fa- 



412 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

miliar Hiram names, were her neighbors ; and she 
and they looked forward to a pleasant winter, to 
be made brighter by frequent renewals of old 
memories ; and the re-unions had begun. 

On the 8th of December she and Miss Eggle- 
ston spent the evening at Kline's, where they 
read and visited several hours. Almeda read 
aloud Emerson's essay on " Compensation," and 
appeared to be all herself again. She seemed so 
bright and so well that her friends thought a long 
life of health and happiness was before her. But 
that re-union was her last. Let me repeat the last 
half-page she ever read : — 

" The compensations of calamity are made apparent to 
the understanding also after long intervals of time. A fever, 
a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss 
of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss and unpayable. 
But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that un- 
derlies all facts. The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, 
lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later 
assumes the aspect of a guide or genius ; for it commonly 
operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch 
of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, 
breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or a style of 
living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly 
to the growth of character. It permits or constrains the 
formation of new acquaintances, and the reception of new 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 413 

influences, that prove of the first importance to the next 
years ; and the man or woman who would have remained a 
sunny garden-flower, with no room for its roots, and too 
much sunshine for its head, by the falling of the walls and 
the neglect of the gardener, is made the banian of the forest, 
yielding shade and fruit to wide neighborhoods of men." 

I cannot doubt that she felt the truth of these 
words ; for they portray with singular fidelity the 
course of her own life. Late that night she was 
taken ill ; and after a week of great suffering, 
borne with uncomplaining fortitude, she died on 
the morning of Dec. 15, 1875. 

One of her friends, who stood by her at the 
closing scene, wrote me : — 

" She passed quietly away. Her face was so peaceful in 
death, no trace of pain upon it. There she lay before us, as 
though, weary with labor, she had fallen asleep. All that 
loving hands could do for her we did. We wreathed her 
coffin with flowers, and bore her remains to Cuyahoga Falls, 
where a mournful and tearful audience awaited us at the 
church. In the hearts of her last pupils, as in the hearts of 
her earlier ones, there was deepest grief. All felt, as we 
stood by her grave, that no nobler, grander, purer spirit ever 
dwelt on the earth, or went up to heaven." 

Such is the story of her life, all too poorly told. 
I have attempted to trace her long and toilful 
progress through its several stages. We have seen. 



414 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

that, in fact, she lived three lives in one, — first, 
the life of early struggle promising to culminate 
in the happy contentment of a home, with the 
companionship and love of a husband ; second, the 
larger life, born of a great sorrow, but leading her 
along a rugged path to the calm heights of a 
broad and beautiful culture, — a life devoted to 
great and successful achievements, as one of the 
very foremost teachers of her time ; and, third, a 
life of heroic and unselfish devotion to a sacred 
filial duty, with added years of noble and beauti- 
ful work as a teacher. 

It remains to inquire what she has left to us as 
a legacy and a lesson. Her life was so largely 
and so inseparably a part of our own, that it is 
not easy for any of us, least of all for me, to take 
a sufficiently distant stand-point from which to 
measure its proportions. 

We shall never forget her sturdy, well-formed 
figure ; her head that would have appeared colos- 
sal but for its symmetry of proportions ; the 
strongly marked features of her plain, rugged face, 
not moulded according to the artist's lines of 
beauty, but so lighted up with intelligence and 
kindliness as to appear positively beautiful to 
those who knew her well. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 415 

The basis of her character, the controlling force 
which developed and formed it, was strength, — 
extraordinary intellectual power. Blessed with a 
vigorous constitution and robust bodily health, 
her capacity for close, continuous, and effective 
mental work was remarkable. No stronger illus- 
tration is possible than the fact, already exhibited, 
that she accomplished, in four years, the ordinary 
work of ten. 

It is hardly possible for one person to know the 
quality and strength of another's mind more thor- 
oughly than I knew hers. From long association 
in her studies, and comparing her with all the 
students I have known, here and elsewhere, I do 
not hesitate to sa}^, that I have never known one 
who grasped with greater power, and handled 
with more ease and thoroughness, all the studies 
of the college course. I doubt if in all these 
respects I have ever known one who was her 
equal. She caught an author's meaning with 
remarkable quickness and clearness ; and, master- 
ing the difficulties of construction, she detected, 
with almost unerring certainty, the most delicate 
shades of thought. 

She abhorred all shams in scholarship, and 
would be content with nothing short of the whole 



416 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

meaning. When crowded with work, it was not 
unusual for her to sit by her lamp, unconscious of 
the hours, till far past midnight. 

Her powers were well balanced. When I first 
knew her, it was supposed that her mind was 
specially adapted to mathematical study. A little 
later, it was thought she had found her fittest 
work in the field of the natural sciences ; later 
still, one would have said that she had found her 
highest possibilities in the languages; and Pro- 
fessor Monroe tells us with what ease she fathomed 
the depths of so severe an argument as Butler's 
" Analogy." 

Her mind was many-sided, strong, compact, 
symmetrical. It was this symmetry and balance 
of qualities that gave her such admirable judg- 
ment, and enabled her to concentrate all her 
powers upon any work she attempted. 

To this general statement concerning her facul- 
ties there was, however, one marked exception. 
While she enjoyed, and in some degree appre- 
ciated, the harmonies of music, she was almost 
wholly deficient in the faculty of musical expres- 
sion. After her return from college, she deter- 
mined to ascertain by actual test to what extent, 
if at all, this defect could be overcome. With a 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 417 

patience and courage I have never seen equalled 
in such a case, she persisted for six months in the 
attempt to master the technical mysteries of in- 
strumental music, and even attempted one vocal 
piece. But she found that the struggle was nearly 
fruitless : the music in her soul would not come 
forth at her bidding. A few of her friends will 
remember, that, for many years, to mention " The 
Suwanee River " was the signal for not a little 
good-natured merriment at her expense, and a 
reminder of her heroic attempt at vocal and in- 
strumental music. 

The tone of her mind was habitually logical 
and serious, not specially inclined to what is tech- 
nically known as wit ; but she had the heartiest 
appreciation of genuine humor, such as glows on 
the pages of Cervantes and Dickens. Clifton 
Bennett and Levi Brown will never forget how 
keenly she enjoyed the quaint drollery with which 
they once presented, at a public lyceum, a scene 
from " Don Quixote ; " and I am sure there are 
three persons here to-day who will never forget 
how nearly she was once suffocated with laughter 
over a mock-presentation speech by Harry Rhodes. 

Though possessed of very great intellectual 
powers, or, as the arrogance of our sex accustoms 



418 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

us to say, " having a mind of masculine strength," 
it was not at all masculine in the opprobrious 
sense in which that term is frequently applied to 
women. She was a most womanly woman, with 
a spirit of gentle and childlike sweetness, with 
no self-consciousness of superiority, and not the 
least trace of arrogance. 

I take pleasure in re-enforcing my own views 
of the combined strength and gentleness of her 
character, by quoting the following letter from 
the Hon. James Monroe, who was one of her 
esteemed professors at Oberlin: — 

"House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 
"May 28, 1876. 

"My dear General, — I learn that you are preparing 
an address upon the life and character of Miss Almeda A. 
Booth ; and I cannot resist the impulse to write you a note 
upon this interesting subject, thus contributing my rill of 
memories to your broader and deeper current. 

" It is among the gratifying recollections of my life that 
Miss Booth was a pupil of mine for a considerable period of 
time, in connection with a college class at Oberlin. Soon 
after I began to observe the habit of her mind, I discovered 
that she was a remarkable woman. What at first struck my 
attention was the union in her character, in a degree very 
uncommon, of masculine intellectual strength and perfect 
womanly gentleness. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 419 

" Her intellectual powers were such as would at once have 
attracted attention in any undergraduate in any college. 
She had not only great force, but force which worked with 
evident ease, without friction and without conscious effort. 
I shall never forget her recitations in Butler's 'Analogy.' 
Often when one member in the class after another had failed 
rightly to interpret some difficult paragraph, Miss Booth, 
when called upon, would at once, without hesitation, with- 
out self-consciousness, and with no idea whatever of being 
superior to others, set the passage in the tiniest and clearest 
light, both as to its intrinsic meaning and its relation to the 
context. She used to recite the 'Analogy' as if she had 
written it. I remember the pleased expression of relief 
which passed over the faces of her classmates when she 
extricated them from some difficulty. They all esteemed 
and praised her, and her superiority made no one envi- 
ous. 

"Her gentleness of character was as remarkable as her 
strength of intellect. She seemed to think well of all her 
acquaintances, and never, to my knowledge, thought she had 
a grievance. She was noticeably kind and helpful to those 
who needed attention, and loved her fellow-creatures with 
the same love which led Christ to die for them. On the 
whole, she was as good an example of combined ' sweetness 
and light ' as I have met with. 

" After she left Oberlin you knew much more of her than 
I did. I often regretted that I could not continue my ac- 
quaintance with her. But I frequently heard of her great 
usefulness, and of the high esteem in which she was held 
wherever she resided. She was a large, strong, loving sour; 



420 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. . 

and any community which was favored with her presence 
must have been the better for it. 

" Yours very truly, 

"James Monroe." 

Though possessing these great powers, she was 
not unmindful of those elegant accomplishments, 
the love of which seems native to the mind of 
woman. 

In her earlier years she was sometimes criti- 
cised as caring too little for the graces of dress 
and manner; and there was some justice in the 
criticism. The possession of great powers, no 
doubt, carries with it a contempt for mere exter- 
nal show. In her early life Miss Booth dressed 
neatly, though with the utmost plainness, and 
applied herself to the work of gaining the more 
enduring ornaments of mind and heart. In her 
first years at Hiram she had devoted all her 
powers to teaching and mastering the difficulties 
of the higher studies, and had given but little 
time to what are called the more elegant accom- 
plishments. But she was not deficient in appre- 
ciation of all that really adorns and beautifies a 
thorough culture. After her return from Oberlin 
she paid more attention to the " mint, anise, and 
cummin" of life. During the last fifteen y \ai> 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 421 

of her life, few ladies dressed with more severe or 
elegant taste. As a means of personal culture, 
she read the history of art, devoted much time to 
drawing and painting, and acquired considerable 
skill with the pencil and brush. 

She did not enjoy miscellaneous society. Great 
crowds were her abhorrence. But in a small 
circle of congenial friends she was a delighted 
and a delightful companion. 

Her religious character affords an additional 
illustration of her remarkable combination of 
strength and gentleness. At an early age she 
became a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and continued in faithful and consistent 
relations with that organization until she united 
with the Disciples, soon after she came to Hiram. 

Her firmness was severely tested by the reli- 
gious changes which occurred in her own home. 
Her father's enthusiastic temperament led him to 
study any new phases of religious opinion, with 
a somewhat impressible credulity. The Mormon 
movement of 1830-32 swept him, for a time, into 
its turbulent current ; and, ten or fifteen years 
later, he was interested in the socialistic theories 
of the Shakers, with whom, as I understand, lie 
united for a short time. Later still, he paid much 



422 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

attention to the Spiritnalistic philosophy. But 
while Miss Booth thoroughly respected the sin- 
cerity of her father's opinions, and from them 
doubtless became wisely tolerant and liberal in 
her opinions, she maintained firmly, but without 
bigotry, her faith in God and in the life to come. 
She cared little for mere differences of ecclesiasti- 
cal form, and abhorred every species of ostenta- 
tious and noisy piety : but her life was full of the 
calmness and beauty of religion; her heart was 
filled with the charity that " suffereth long, and is 
kind," and, still greater, that " thinketh no evil." 
At the memorial meeting held here soon after her 
death, the very just and striking statement was 
made by one who had known her from child- 
hood, that he "had never heard her speak evil of 
any human being." 

I venture to assert, that in native powers of 
mind, in thoroughness and breadth of scholarship, 
in womanly sweetness of spirit, and in the quan- 
tity and quality of effective, unselfish work done, 
she has not been excelled by any American 
woman. What she accomplished with her great 
powers, thoroughly trained and subordinated to 
the principles of a Christian life, has been briefly 
stated. 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 423 

She did not find it necessary to make war upon 
society in order to capture a field for the exercise 
of her great qualities. Though urging upon 
women the necessity of the largest and most 
thorough culture, and demanding for them the 
amplest means for acquiring it, she did not waste 
her years in bewailing the subjection of her sex, 
but employed them in making herself a great and 
beneficent power. She did far more to honor and 
exalt woman's place in society than the thousands 
of her contemporaries who struggle more earnest- 
ly for the barren sceptre of power than for fitness 
to wield it. 

She might have adorned the highest walks of 
literature, and doubtless might thus have won a 
noisy fame. But it may be doubted whether in 
any other pursuit she could have conferred greater 
or more lasting benefits upon her fellow-creatures, 
than by the life she so faithfully and successfully 
devoted to the training and culture of youth. 
With no greed of power or of gain, she found her 
chief reward in blessing others. 

I do not know of any man or woman, who, at 
fifty-one years of age, had done more or better 
work. I have not been able to ascertain precisely 
how long she taught before she came to Hiram ; 



424 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 

but it was certainly not less than fifteen terms. 
She taught forty -two terms here, twenty-one terms 
in the Union School at Cuyahoga Falls, and, 
finally, two years in private classes ; in all, nearly 
twenty-eight years of faithful and most successful 
teaching, to which she devoted the wealth of her 
great faculties and admirable scholarship. 

How rich and how full was the measure of 
gratitude poured out to her, from many thousands 
of loving hearts ! And to-day, from every station 
in life, and from every quarter of our country, are 
heard the voices of those who rise up to call her 
blessed, and to pay their tearful tribute of grati- 
tude to her memory. 

On my own behalf, I take this occasion to say, 
that for her generous and powerful aid, so often 
and so efficiently rendered, for her quick and 
never-failing sympathy, and for her intelligent, 
unselfish, and unswerving friendship, I owe her a 
debt of gratitude and affection, for the payment 
of which the longest term of life would have been 
too short. 

To this institution she has left the honorable 
record of a long and faithful service, and the rich 
legacy of a pure and noble life. I have shown 
that she lived three lives. One of these, the sec- 



ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 425 

ond, in all its richness and fulness, she gave to 
Hiram. More than half of all her teaching was 
done here, where she taught much longer than 
any other person has taught ; and no one has done 
work of better quality. 

She has here reared a monument which the 
envious years cannot wholly destroy. As long as 
the love of learning shall here survive ; as long as 
the light of this college shall be kept burning ; as 
long as there are hearts to hold and cherish the 
memory of its past; as long as high qualities of 
mind and heart are honored and loved among men 
and women, — so long will the name of Almecla A. 
Booth be here remembered, and honored, and 
loved. 

All who knew her at any period of her career 
will carry her memory as a perpetual and precious 
possession. With the changing of a single word, 
we may say of our friend what the Poet Laure- 
ate of England said of " Isabel : " — 

" The intuitive decision of a bright 
And thorough-edged intellect to part 
Error from crime ; a prudence to withhold ; 
The laws of friendship charactered in gold 
Upon the blanched tablets of her heart ; 
A love still burning upward, giving light 






426 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 



To read those laws ; . . . 

A courage to endure and to obey : 

A hate of gossip parlance and of sway ; 

.... the world hath not another 

(Though all her fairest forms are types of thee, 

And thou of God in thy great charity) 

Of such a finished chastened purity.'* 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



THE ARMY POST SCHOOLS. 

SINCE the account of these schools given in the 
"Introduction to Speeches" 1 was written, and 
even put in type, I have received a mass of valuable 
information concerning them, some parts of which will 
be of interest here. 

The law of 1866 remained a dead letter until 1875. 
Chaplain George G. Mullins, of the Twenty-fifth In- 
fantry, discovered the existence of the law, and began 
to make demands upon his colonel and the War De- 
partment that its terms and provisions be carried out.* J 
Mullins's work and reports, and a report made by Gen. 
N. H. Davis of his observations in a tour of inspection 
in the Department of Texas, led to the organization 
of the Board that framed the rules and regulations of 
General Order No. 24, May 18, 1878. These rules form 

i Pp. 169-173. 

2 Sect. 1,124 of the Revised Statutes made it the duty of chaplains of 
regiments of colored troops and of post chaplains to instruct the enlisted 
men in the common English branches of education. 

429 



430 APPENDIX. 

the basis of the post-schools. Rules 1, 2, 3, and 4 pro- 
vide for the accumulation and management of a post 
fund. This fund comes from two sources : first, the 
post-trader at a post is required to pay for his privilege, 
" not exceeding ten cents a month for every officer 
and enlisted soldier serving at the post; " second, the 
troops, when practicable, are required to bake their 
own bread, and the difference between bread and flour, 
which is thirty-three and one-third per cent in favor of 
flour, goes to the post fund. Rule 7 names the objects 
to which the fund thus accumulated shall be devoted. 
In their order they are : 1 . Expenses of bake-house : 
2. Garden seeds and utensils ; 3. Post schools ; 4. 
Post library and reading-room ; 5. Gymnasium ; 6. 
Chapel ; 7. Fruit and shade trees ; 8. Fruit-bearing 
vines and bushes ; 9. Printing-press. Order No. 24 
contains minute regulations, covering the whole ground 
of education in the army. 

Chaplain Mullins was duly appointed assistant to 
General McCook, the inspector, and he now holds the 
office of Supervisor of Education in the Army. He is 
enthusiastically devoted to the work, and has already 
done much, through the means appointed by the law, to 
foster the intelligence and morality of the soldiers. 
In an able article entitled ' ' Education in the Army, ' ' 
contributed to the "United Service" magazine for 
April, 1880, the chaplain presents the argument for 
the schools with great force. 



APPENDIX. 431 

The majority of the twenty-five thousand enlisted 
men in the army are native-born citizens, and not for- 
eigners. They are not hardened wretches, but hopeful 
and adventurous young men, generally under thirty 
years of age, the mass of whom are illiterate, — the 
larger part not being able properly to sign the muster- 
rolls. Many of the non-commissioned officers cannot 
repeat the multiplication-table, know nothing of the his- 
tory of the country, cannot study the "Tactics," and 
are wholly unable to write, or to read written orders. 
He points out the inevitable tendencies of such igno- 
rance under the well-known conditions of army-life, — 
drunkenness, idleness, shirking duty, want of self-re- 
spect, and other vices and immoralities. The tendency 
of the schools to correct these evils, in great degree, is 
stated, and well supported by facts. Then he speaks 
of the multitude of dependent children in the army, or 
in some way belonging to it, — children of officers, en- 
listed men, and employees, besides the children of set- 
tlers around the posts. He supposes these to be three 
or four thousand in number. "The majority of these 
precious impedimenta are west of the Mississippi, at the 
posts upon the wild frontier, far removed from schools, 
churches, and the thousand refining influences of civil 
life. To provide teachers, books, *and papers for them, 
to save them from heathenish darkness, to train them 
up for lives of virtue and usefulness, ought surely to 



432 APPENDIX. 

be counted a matter of sufficient gravity to challenge 
the attention of the wise legislators who are doing so 
very much in the interest of national education." He 
then urges the strong claim of the common soldier and 
his child for an education, and remarks upon the fact, 
that until the post-schools were organized nothing 
whatever was done for either. 

From the annual report of the Supervisor of Educa- 
tion in the Army, dated St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 1, 1881, 
it appears that the approximate number of enlisted 
men in daily attendance upon the reading-rooms for 
the year is 4,800. The average attendance upon the 
schools has been, — enlisted men, 912; children of 
enlisted men, 850 ; children of officers, 224 ; children 
of civilians, 316 : total average number, 2,302. Thus 
far there have been built at the various military posts 
fifty-two chapels, schools, and reading-rooms, at a total 
cost of $60,757. Large contributions of reading 
matter — Bibles, Testaments, song-books, periodicals, 
tracts, Sunday-school books, and miscellaneous works — 
have been received through the year from various 
sources, as the publication societies and private indi- 
viduals. 

This fuller account of the post-schools is given for 
three reasons : — 

1 . The public are almost wholly ignorant of the ex- 
istence of these schools, and of the efforts being made 



APPENDIX. 433 

through them to increase the intelligence and moral- 
ity of the army. 

2. The schools themselves are important. Of course 
-they, and all the related appliances, are still in their 
infancy ; but experience proves conclusively that a 
foundation was laid in the law of 1866 for incalculable 
good. 

Both these considerations alone would not justify 
the space here given to the subject, or even a mention. 
But — 

3. In a- sense, these are Garfield's schools. Speak- 
ing of the law of 1866, he said near the close of his 
life, "That is one of my things." He originated the 
measure, though it was supported by General E. C. 
Schenck, and promptly approved by House and Senate. 
His interest in the post-schools continued to the end. 
He indorsed Chaplain Mullins as ' ' the man for the 
work ; " and, after he became President, told him that 
he wished him to remove his headquarters to Washing- 
ton. He assured the supervisor that he should have 
the Executive's earnest co-operation in his good work. 



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